Pertamina distributors ready for Y2K bug

Pertamina distributors ready for Y2K bug

JAKARTA (JP): State oil and gas company Pertamina announced on
Thursday that it was ready to face the Year 2000 (Y2K) bug,
saying all its operations, including refinery and fuel
distribution, would run as usual when the country entered the
next millennium.

Pertamina president Martiono Hadianto assured the public that
the millennium bug would not pose any problems to the company's
fuel distribution lines.

"As a result of our efforts, Pertamina is now Y2K ready and
fuel and nonfuel distributions will remain normal before, during
and after the year 2000," Martiono said during a ceremony marking
Pertamina's Y2K compliance at the company's head office in
Jakarta.

Pertamina had identified all the areas of its operation which
were exposed to the Y2k threat, he said, adding that the state
oil and gas company had taken necessary steps to anticipate Y2K
computer glitches.

He said that for instance Pertamina had checked up possible
Y2K-affected computer systems at fuel stations throughout
Indonesia and had upgraded the systems if necessary.

Controllers at oil refineries had also passed Pertamina's Y2K
preparation program, he added.

He said that to reassure Pertamina's partners and consumers,
the company had used the service of an international Y2K
consultant, Tava Technologies Inc.

Tava performed assessments and analysis in several critical
areas of Pertamina's operations, he said.

Martiono said Pertamina received its Y2K compliant certificate
from Tava following the consultant's audit on Y2K preparations by
Pertamina.

Pertamina's contingency plan and the following simulations and
training sessions were all prepared based on documents from the
British Standard Institutions, which issues operation standards
in anticipation of the millennium bug, he said, adding that
training sessions had been run since October.

Martiono said to monitor Pertamina's operation across the
country, the company had set up a Y2K post at its head office,
which would be operated by a team from Pertamina's system
information and data management office.

The Y2K problem, or the millennium bug, arises because older
computer systems record dates using only the last two digits of
the year. If not corrected, such systems could treat "2000" as
"1900", generating errors or system crashes when the date rolls
over to Jan. 1, 2000.

Calling the Y2K an "interesting global phenomenon", Martiono
said Indonesia's position would permit Pertamina to closely watch
events in New Zealand, the first country to enter the next
millennium, and still have between five to six hours in lead
time.

Martiono was unable to provide information on Pertamina's
budget for its Y2K compliance program, however, head of the
company's planning division Didi Sunarwinadi said Pertamina had
not allocated any special funds for the program.

"All spending came from our existing operational budget," Didi
said.

He said Pertamina would be able to assess the costs for its
Y2K program after the company's audit next year. (03)