Pertamina denies fuel import snags

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina has denied it is facing cash-flow problems to import fuel amid the sharp depreciation of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar.

"There is no such cash-flow problem. We still have sufficient stocks of fuel in the country until March," company president Soegianto said Friday at a breaking of the fast gathering at the company's headquarters.

The nation consumes 52 million kiloliters of fuel annually, according to Pertamina data, 80 percent of which is supplied by the firm's refineries.

The remainder is imported from Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore and Thailand, and the Middle East.

An official at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, who asked to remain anonymous, had said earlier that Pertamina was experiencing a cash-flow difficulty in importing fuels because of the crisis.

Pertamina has to purchase the fuel from abroad in dollars, but domestic sales are made in rupiah.

The ministry official said it was problematic to obtain the greenback during the crisis, which has hit the nation since July of last year.

Most dollar proceeds from the country's gas and oil exports go directly to the central bank. Pertamina receives rupiah to finance its imports.

The firm thus has to change its rupiah into dollars at an extremely high rate.

Soegianto admitted that most of the proceeds from the country's oil and gas exports went to Bank Indonesia, while Pertamina only had in hand dollars raised from the export of its own oil output.

He said the export proceeds that went directly to the central bank were equal to the government's shares in the operations of the oil and gas production sharing contract (PSC) and Pertamina.

The government's shares are 85 percent for oil PSC, 70 percent for gas PSC and 60 percent for Pertamina's operation.

He admitted that dollar amounts obtained by Pertamina from the export of its own oil and gas output were not enough for fuel imports. As such, Pertamina had to change its rupiah revenue into dollars at the state-owned banks.

But Soegianto dismissed the allegation of the company's problems in obtaining dollars.

"Don't worry. There is no problem with our fuel imports," he said. (jsk)