Pertamina vows to secure Premium gasoline supply
Pertamina vows to secure Premium gasoline supply
JAKARTA (JP): State oil and gas company Pertamina said
yesterday it would increase Jakarta's fuel supply to avoid fuel
shortages as experienced on Wednesday.
Pertamina made the statement following reports that some gas
stations in Jakarta ran out of Premium gasoline on Wednesday.
Some motorists queued up at gas stations through the night.
Pertamina president Soegianto said Pertamina would soon
dispatch 107,000 kiloliters of Premium gasoline from it refinery
in Balongan, West Java, to add to the supply from its Cilacap
refinery in Central Java.
In comparison, the daily demand for Premium gasoline in
Jakarta is 7,583 kiloliters.
"Premium gasoline from Balongan will arrive in Jakarta in two
or three days. Nevertheless, supply from Cilacap will continue,"
Soegianto said after a ceremony to give Rp 1.93 billion
(US$193,000) to student cooperatives at 28 universities
throughout Java.
The residue catalytic cracking unit at the Balongan refinery,
which produces Premium gasoline and other fuels, is currently
under repair, Soegianto said.
But the refinery can still produce Premium gasoline by
blending low sulfuric wax residue produced at the refinery's
crude distillation unit with imported high octane mogas
components.
Soegianto acknowledged that some gas stations in the city had
ran out of Premium gasoline Wednesday, but only for four hours
until 5 p.m.
The reason for the shortage was that a tanker carrying 14,000
kiloliters of Premium gasoline and automotive diesel fuel from
the refinery in Cilacap, Central Java, arrived late at Tanjung
Priok Port.
Soegianto did not say why the tanker arrived late. But
separately Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto
said yesterday the tanker arrived at the port at 9 a.m. as
scheduled, but failed to berth because it was overloaded.
The ship went on to Merak where it unloaded the automotive
diesel fuel before returning to Tanjung Priok.
Soegianto noted that Pertamina had a policy of keeping enough
fuel in reserve to last the country 26 to 28 days.
All other parts of the country had enough fuel on Wednesday.
"As a matter of fact, only eight out of 160 gas stations
across Jakarta ran out of Premium gasoline that day," Soegianto
said. (jsk)