Pertamina seals gas oil deal

Pertamina seals gas oil deal

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Indonesia state-owned oil company, Pertamina, has bought its first directly negotiated spot gas oil cargo from a Middle East National oil company, a source involved in the deal said yesterday.

The deal for the delivery of a 80,000 ton (600,000 barrel) cargo into Teluk Semangka in the second half of July was concluded this week, the source told Reuters.

"We have no problems with their letters of credit," the source said. The price of the deal was not revealed.

Pertamina was expected to issue a tender this week to buy 1.8 million barrels of gas oil for July but this was delayed due to its inability to settle payment issues, industry sources said.

Pertamina previously bought gas oil on spot basis trough two affiliates Perta Oil and Permindo but under the new reform government of President B.J. Habibie, the exclusive import contracts have been dropped.