Pertamina to get piece of oil and fuel import action
JAKARTA (JP): State oil and gas company Pertamina will end the monopoly of crude oil and fuel imports now held by politically connected Perta Oil Marketing Ltd and Permindo Trading Oil Co Ltd, the company said yesterday.
Company processing director Samto Utomo said Pertamina would establish a new trading division to handle crude oil and fuel imports in competition with both companies.
Perta and Permindo hold the exclusive rights to import fuel and crude oil imports respectively for Pertamina.
"Perta and Permindo may still operate, but there will be no obligation for Pertamina to buy imported crude oil and fuel from them," Samto said.
"We shall only buy crude oil and fuel from them if they set lower prices than our trading division."
Indonesia, though a net-oil exporting country, imports between 15 percent to 20 percent of its annual fuel consumption of 52 million kiloliters due to the limited capacity of Pertamina's refineries.
Pertamina also imports 70 million barrels of crude oil annually, mainly from the Middle East, to feed its refineries.
The plan to establish the trading division was part of the state oil company's restructuring program, Samto said, adding that Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto had ordered Pertamina to set up the division by 2000.
Pertamina has a 30 percent stake in Penta and 35 percent in Permindo, but the company thus far refuses to publicly reveal the names of the other shareholders.
An informed source at the House of Representatives said the remaining 70 percent stake in Penta is owned by a consortium including the Humpuss Group, controlled by President Soeharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra, and several foundations linked to the country's top leaders.
The remaining 65 percent stake in Permindo is owned by a consortium, Mindo Petroleum, partly owned by President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, Soeharto's cousin Sudwikatmono and Nirwan Bakrie.
Samto said the appointment of the two companies to import Pertamina's fuel and crude oil was based on a ministerial decree.
"I don't remember which minister issued the decree," he said.
A legislator of the ruling Golkar grouping, Priyo Budi Santoso, recently alleged that both companies took an overly high trading commission from Pertamina.
Priyo praised yesterday Pertamina's plan to scrap Perta and Permindo's monopoly.
"I give a thumbs up to the plan. I hope the plan will be realized, otherwise I will keep criticizing Pertamina," Priyo told The Jakarta Post.
Pertamina also said on Friday it would import 4.6 million barrels of oil products in May and a similar amount in June following the shutdown of the residue catalytic cracker unit in the Balongan refinery last week. (jsk)