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)