Boosting Competitiveness, Purbaya Prepares Regulations for Floating Storage Unit and Bunkering Business

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa is targeting the preparation of regulations related to the development of the Floating Storage Unit (FSU) and bunkering business line, in order to support domestic competitiveness.

This step is a response to the business obstacles experienced by PT Asinusa Putra Sekawan, which were discussed today at the Debottlenecking Channel Hearing held at the Ministry of Finance office in Jakarta.

In the hearing, Asinusa wanted to build an FSU and bunkering business on Pulau Nipah in the Malacca Strait. However, they are hindered by the absence of regulations that can support permitting, supervision, governance, and operations of that business.

“If we want to expand to FSU, that’s good. But the regulations need to be adjusted by us. This is still not very clear, but I think I know where it’s heading,” said Purbaya on Thursday, 9 April 2026.

Asinusa’s business is located in the Malacca Strait and Singapore, which is one of the strategic and quite busy international shipping routes. Based on company data, the total ship traffic passing through this route throughout 2025 reached around 130,000 vessels.

Of that number, 35 percent carried out bunkering activities with a total sales volume of 56 million metric tons of bunker, equivalent to a transaction value of around US$23 billion.

On the other hand, there are also 21 FSU vessels operating in Tanjung Pelepas and Kukup, with ship-to-ship (STS) activities of around 15 to 20 vessels per month.

Asinusa assesses that the unavailability of a comprehensive regulatory framework supporting the FSU and bunker business line makes Indonesia have relatively weaker competitiveness compared to Singapore and Malaysia as the Regional STS Hub.

Because, ship traffic is likely to shift to other areas that have service certainty, such as Singapore and Malaysia. In the end, the country loses the potential revenue that could be collected from this business.

Purbaya said that his side will form a team to prepare those regulations. He believes it can resolve this business obstacle as long as the issue is still within the corridor of the Ministry of Finance.

“Later our team with the Coordinating Minister (for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto) will also sort it out. So, within a month we hope the regulations will be finished,” he stated.