JAKARTA, Indonesia – Foreign oil companies are finally seeing an opportunity to sell gasoline on a mass scale in Indonesia, after decades of government price-fixing that has largely shut them out of the market. The change is due in large part to President Joko Widodo's elimination of gasoline subsidies that had for years dissuaded drivers from filling up at foreign-owned fuel stations.

Indonesia represents one of Southeast Asia's largest economies, forecast to be one of the world’s largest gasoline importers over the next few years with more than 1 million new cars and almost 8 million motorcycles sold yearly, according to Reuters.

In recent years, state-owned oil firm Pertamina has dominated sales of gasoline, because subsidies meant it sold fuel cheaper than anyone else. Although foreign firms such as Shell, Total and Malaysia's Petronas have had a presence in Indonesia for more than a decade, the foreign firms' sales were primarily limited to rich drivers. The foreign-owned stations relied heavily on inside-store sales to offset their lower fuel earnings.

Petronas left the market in 2012, after more than a decade of disappointing sales, but the remaining firms now see a chance to grow as government subsidies cease. According to the Reuters report, Pertamina accounts for about 90% of the 70 billion liters of fuel sold annually, while Shell and Total account for barely 10% between them. While Pertamina's low-grade, RON88 petrol is still the cheapest, drivers are now paying a much smaller premium for foreign firms' RON92 petrol.

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