Oil truck drivers stage protest

JAKARTA (JP): Some 1,500 oil truck drivers hold a strike along Jl. Yos Sudarso, which leads to the office of state oil and gas company Pertamina in Plumpang, North Jakarta.

The drivers were protesting Pertamina's plan to divide the capital's kerosene market based on its administrative regions, which will no longer allow oil suppliers from each mayoralty to do business in other areas.

As a result of the strike, the traffic between Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta and Cawang interchange in East Jakarta was congested.

"The proposal will restrict us to doing business in our own area. We cannot transport kerosene to areas other than our own mayoralty," one of the protesting drivers, Sarwan, said.

Pertamina's deputy director of marketing and trade Muchsin Bahar said the strike, which ended at 2 p.m., also disrupted the daily supply of 8,100 kilo liters of kerosene in the capital.

Prior to the strike, the new marketing scheme was expected to take effect on April 1.

Head of Pertamina's domestic supply Tuti Anggrahini said after a meeting with 10 representatives of the protesters that the company would delay implementation of the scheme for one month.

"The problem is, the drivers will no longer earn substantial extra monies for traveling outside the capital as they used to. That's why we decided to suspend the plan, pending the discovery of a win-win solution to the protest," Tuti said. (01)