Pertamina claims success in reducing fuel leakage
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Countering allegations about its allegedly inefficient fuel distribution system, state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina claimed that it had successfully cut "supply losses" in the fuel distribution chain to well below the tolerance limit permissible under international standards.
Pertamina spokesperson Ridwan Nyak Baik said that based on audit results from the State Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), the level of supply losses for 2001 was 0.25 percent of the total fuel supplied that year, compared to the international tolerance limit of 0.5 percent.
"This was the result of efficiency. As a matter of fact, if the losses are more than the tolerance limit, the difference will not be covered by the government's fuel subsidy, but rather would have to be borne by Pertamina," Ridwan claimed in a press statement.
He said Pertamina had managed to cut supply losses despite the "challenging" geography of the country.
It was not easy to keep supply losses to a minimum in a big country like Indonesia, where the company's six transit terminals, five installations and 101 fuel depots were scattered over relatively long distances.
Earlier, a task force formed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to fight fuel hoarding, revealed that as much as 119.7 million liters of fuel were lost during shipment by vessels.
Meanwhile, 4.075 million liters disappeared from pipelines. There was a relatively small level of leakage during transportation by train.
The problem gave rise to potential losses to the state amounting to Rp 199.4 billion, the task force claimed.
Ridwan, however, claimed that losses could happen during fuel handling for shipment or distribution thanks to natural causes or human error.
"Fuel can easily evaporate in high temperatures. And also, our men can miscalculate the volume," Ridwan said, but failed to mention possible fuel hording by certain parties.
To prevent the losses, Ridwan said Pertamina had put operational guidelines and control systems in place whose implementation was regularly audited by the BPKP.