Pertamina only has cash for a month of key imports
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina has about Rp 10 trillion (US$1.05 billion) in cash, which is roughly enough to cover fuel imports for a month, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro says.
The government disbursed Rp 4.1 trillion in fuel subsidies in an emergency measure and the company had some Rp 1.5 trillion in its account, the minister announced to the public on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of the new Oil and Gas Upstream Regulatory Agency's (BP Migas) chairman, Kardaya Warnika here on Tuesday.
"It (Pertamina) receives about Rp 5.5 trillion in revenues from fuel sales each month," he said. "In total, it has about Rp 10 trillion."
To cover domestic fuel demands, Pertamina needs about $1 billion a month to pay for the imported fuel, based on state budget's oil prices assumption of $36 per barrel.
Earlier this week, Pertamina announced that it was having difficulty importing oil. Some banks had refused to issue the letters of credit (L/C) required to guarantee import payments, as Pertamina still owed other banks some Rp 9 trillion.
Bloomberg has reported that Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil company, and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. have refused to unload cargoes of fuel due to the lack of the L/Cs.
Such difficulty, which was not the first to be experienced by Pertamina, raised the alarm all over the country of a possible fuel shortage.
The government has made an effort to speed up the disbursement of fuel subsidies to Pertamina, particularly after oil started hitting record highs of over $50 per barrel last October. The current global oil price is at around $54 per barrel.
Through a presidential decree, the government stipulated that Pertamina could collect between 90 percent and 95 percent of its fuel subsidy money with only a monthly verification letter from the Ministry of Finance.
The rest of the funds will be handed over after an audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) is completed.
Purnomo acknowledged that the subsidies from the first three months of the year were yet to be disbursed. "There are also several months from last year where the audit has not yet been completed," he added.
The fuel subsidy fund that the government will pay Pertamina, amounts to more than Rp 23 trillion.
Pertamina president director Widya Purnama confirmed that the company had received the Rp 4.1 trillion. Fuel subsidies had to be disbursed in phases, he said. "We will talk about this with the finance ministry," he added.