Government Ensures Fuel Availability in North Kalimantan's Outermost Regions

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government guarantees the availability and distribution of petroleum fuel (BBM) remains steady up to the remote, frontier, and outermost (3T) areas of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), one of which is through the One Price Fuel programme in North Kalimantan (Kaltara). “This (provision of BBM) is the state’s duty in preparing and distributing BBM up to the 3T areas. Those areas are not easy to reach,” said the Head of the Downstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency (BPH Migas), Wahyudi Anas, in a statement received in Jakarta on Sunday. Efforts to meet the community’s BBM needs in the 3T areas are carried out using various types of transportation (multimodal), from land, sea, to air transport. Wahyudi directly witnessed the BBM transportation process using an Air Tractor aircraft from Juwata Airport, Tarakan, Kaltara, to Yuvai Semaring Airport, Long Bawan Village, Krayan Subdistrict, Nunukan Regency, Kaltara, on Saturday (28/3/2026). This area borders the Sarawak region of Malaysia. “With great effort and very high risk to deliver BBM to communities that are truly difficult to reach,” said Wahyudi. Appreciation was expressed by Wahyudi for the efforts of Pertamina Patra Niaga in always maintaining the availability of subsidised BBM and state compensation up to the remotest parts of the country. “Appreciation needs to be given for all the efforts made, because BBM is a flammable item and this is handled by special aircraft transportation, the Air Tractor, which is rented by Pertamina Patra Niaga to deliver BBM to the 3T areas,” he said. The delivery of BBM using the Air Tractor is carried out a maximum of three times a day. The pilot flying the Air Tractor aircraft must also have special certification to operate the fleet that serves as the frontline in distributing BBM to the outermost areas of NKRI. This fleet can carry 3,000 litres of Biosolar or 4,000 litres of Pertalite. In one delivery, the total travel time for the Air Tractor to bring BBM to the 3T area and return to Juwata Airport is around 2 hours. Upon arrival at the destination airport, the BBM is then transferred to a double cabin vehicle with a capacity to carry 1 kilolitre of BBM to be distributed to four One Price Fuel distributors in 4 subdistricts of Nunukan Regency. The delivery time for subsidised BBM to One Price Fuel distributors also varies. For example, in South Krayan, the distance is around 30 to 40 kilometres with a travel time of about 2-3 days, where the subsidised BBM delivery time also greatly depends on weather conditions. “Insya Allah, the state’s commitment to providing one price BBM in the 3T areas can continue to be carried out well and smoothly,” he concluded.