Pertamina sees huge profit from Pertamax, Pertamax Plus
Pertamina sees huge profit from Pertamax, Pertamax Plus
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina expects huge profits
from its special Pertamax and Pertamax Plus fuel products as
demand rises.
"The prospects are quite good, and looking ahead we want
(these products) to become the backbone of Pertamina's revenue,"
said company spokesman Hanung Budya on Saturday.
He said that when Pertamax was first introduced in 2002,
demand was only about 300 kiloliters per day. In 2003, demand had
soared to 1,200 kiloliters a day for Pertamax and 350 kiloliters
a day for Pertamax Plus.
Pertamax and Pertamax Plus are special fuel products
containing higher octane levels suitable for newer cars. The two
fuel products are promoted as helping improve engine performance
and being environmentally friendly.
Hanung was responding to earlier reports that Pertamina wanted
to take over the marketing of the two fuel products from the
current nine distributors starting next month due to the huge
profit potential.
The distributors would only retain the role of transporting
the products.
Hanung said that in the future, there was the possibility that
Pertamina would set up a special body to handle the marketing of
the two fuel products.
Pertamina has become a profit-oriented company since being
transformed into a limited liability company last year.
In 2003, Pertamina saw an after-tax profit of Rp 3.90 trillion
(US$464.28 million). This year, the company expects profit to
increase to Rp 5.30 trillion.
Pertamina is set to boost investment to Rp 5.9 trillion this
year, from Rp 4.7 trillion in 2003. The new investment will
mostly go to finance exploration efforts to increase oil and gas
production both from existing fields and new fields.
Pertamina is intensifying oil and gas exploration to jack up
output amid growing demand at home. Experts had previously said
that new oil finds are essential if the country is to avoid
becoming a net oil importer in 10 years time.
The oil and gas company began to produce special fuel products
in 1997. At the time, the products were sold under the Premix and
Super TT brands. From the beginning, Pertamina assigned the
marketing of the products to distributors, most of which were
owned by the politically well-connected. The distributors enjoyed
lucrative profits from both selling and transporting the
products.
According to previous reports, the distributors would continue
to lobby Pertamina to allow them to retain role in distributing
the special fuel products.