Government guarantees gasoline supply over holidays
JAKARTA (JP): State oil and gas company Pertamina said it stocked sufficient gasoline in anticipation of a surge in demand during the New Year and Idul Fitri holidays.
The company increased gasoline reserves from the normal supply of 21 days to 25 days, Pertamina president Martiono Hadianto said on Friday.
"We have increased our supply by four days, or an additional 600,000 kiloliters," Martiono said on Friday following an inspection by Minister of Mines and Energy Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Pertamina's fuel depot in Plumpang, North Jakarta.
Bambang inspected the Pertamina fuel depot and the Muara Karang gas power plant in North Jakarta, which is part of the Java-Bali Power (PJB), on their preparations for the coming holiday season which includes Idul Fitri on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9.
Martiono said gasoline supply for Jakarta, which uses 22,500 kiloliters (kl) a day, should be safe during the holiday period with the Plumpang depot storing 10 days worth of supply.
The Plumpang depot, which supplies Jakarta and parts of West Java, receives its feedstock from imported gasoline from Singapore and the Balongan refinery in West Java supplied through a pipeline.
"We have a 24-hour supply from Balongan," he said.
On possible Year 2000 (Y2K) problems, Martiono said Pertamina set up a team at its headquarters in Jakarta to monitor operations, including fuel distribution, during the New Year.
Pertamina declared on Dec. 16 that it was ready for the millennium bug, or the problems which might occur from computers misreading 2000 as 1900.
The operations director of state electricity company PT PLN, Tunggono, said he expected electricity usage to decline because most factories would shut down over the holiday period.
"We expect a 30 percent decline during the turn of the New Year and a 40 percent drop during Idul Fitri," he said, adding that power consumption during Idul Fitri would be the lowest for the entire year.
On the millennium bug, Tunggono said PLN announced its Y2K readiness earlier in the month.
The company also established a contingency plan which reduced West Java's dependency on East Java's electricity supply.
Each day, Tunggono explained, a flow of between 600 megawatts to 700 megawatts entered West Java from East Java.
He said in order to reduce dependency on the outside power supply, the Muara Karang power plant would work at full capacity.
However, he said that since PLN expected power consumption to decline, the company was confident that all the five power plants in West Java would be ready to meet power demand, even if there was a breakdown in East Java's power units.
Bambang, an Army lieutenant general, said the Plumpang fuel depot and the Muara Karang power plant must operate smoothly because any disruption would have a wide impact on the public.
The Plumpang depot supplies 21 percent of the nation's fuel consumption while the Muara Karang power plant provides power for about 13 percent of Java and Bali's electricity consumption.
"The reports I received show that Plumpang and Muara Karang have taken all the necessary measures," Bambang said during a media briefing at the Muara Karang power unit.
The minister concluded his inspection by examining preparations at the Pluit gas station in North Jakarta, the Semanggi gas station and the Tanah Abang II gas station, both in Central Jakarta.
On New Year's Eve, Bambang plans to personally monitor the Java Bali electricity supply at the Gandul power transmission unit in South Jakarta. (03)