Dumai refinery to be closed temporarily
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina plans to shut down its Dumai refinery in Riau in early July for maintenance, a top official was quoted by Dow Jones news agency as saying.
The refinery, which has a capacity to process 120,000 barrels per day, is expected to be shut for 21 days, the company's director for processing Suroso Atmomartoyo said on Wednesday.
After the turnaround in Dumai, Pertamina also plans to shut down Cilacap refinery -- which according to 2002 data, has a production capacity of 348,000 barrels a day -- for 20 days in September, said Suroso.
Pertamina anticipates bigger imports will be necessary due to the temporary closure of the refineries, according to the company's director of marketing and trading Ari Soemarno.
"We have programmed (the maintenance) for a long time," Ari told The Jakarta Post. "There won't be any problem with securing oil imports."
Pertamina had earlier intended to close the Dumai refinery for maintenance in June.
The state firm has nine refineries, which have a total capacity of about 1 million barrels a day.
As the domestic demand, which rises on average by 6 percent a year, is higher than the refineries' total capacity, Pertamina also imports some 400,000 barrels of oil per day.
Ari said that fund of Rp 1.2 trillion that the government would give each month would be sufficient, despite higher imports during the turnaround periods.
"We are also asking the government to pay some Rp 10.9 trillion in subsidies from 2003 and 2004, which have not been disbursed yet," said Ari.
According to Ari, the government owes Pertamina about Rp 1 trillion from 2003 and Rp 9.9 trillion from 2004. The funds are parts of the fuel subsidy, which will be disbursed after a complete audit is finished.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Tuesday that the finance ministry and Pertamina would conclude the calculation within one week.
Pertamina needs some $1.1 billion a month to cover fuel imports.
The government announced earlier this week announced that it would provide only Rp 1.2 trillion a month, which is roughly the difference between what the government owes Pertamina in fuel subsidy and what the firm owes the state in, among others, crude and liquefied natural gas sales.