Indonesia buys 1.6 million barrels of jet fuel

Indonesia buys 1.6 million barrels of jet fuel

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesia's state oil firm Pertamina has
bought 1.6 million barrels of jet fuel and 2.2 million barrels of
diesel (gas oil) for delivery in November, a company source said.

The increased imports were needed because of the shutdown of
the 300,000-barrel-per-day Cilacap refinery in Central Java for
three weeks following a storage tanks fire on Oct. 24.

Before the blaze, Pertamina's import allocation was about
800,000 barrels for jet fuel and one million barrels for gas oil,
the source said.

Of the 2.2 million barrels of gas oil, he said, 600,000 were
from a term deal with Kuwait Petroleum Corp, while the remainder
was bought from the spot market by Pertamina's trading affiliates
here.

The price was around five cents a barrel above Singapore spot
quotes on a free-on-board (fob) basis.

The jet fuel was bought from the spot market at 10-to-20 cents
a barrel above Singapore quotes on an fob basis.

The source said the purchases would be sufficient to meet
Indonesia's current needs and to cover shortfalls caused by the
fire.

But Pertamina might consider buying more products if the
Cilacap shutdown exceeded the scheduled three week period.

Traders here have said that Indonesia might take a total of
2.2-to-2.4 million barrels of jet fuel and about 2.4 million
barrels of gas oil for November as a result of the Cilacap fire.