Government guarantees gasoline supply over holidays
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)