Pertamina's founder Sutowo dies at 86
JAKARTA (JP): Ibnu Sutowo, the founding president of state oil and gas company Pertamina, passed away here on Friday morning at the age of 86.
He died due to old age at 5.35 a.m. in the Pertamina Central Hospital in Jakarta, his businessman son Pontjo Sutowo told reporters.
Pontjo said his father was admitted to Pertamina Hospital around 1 a.m. on Friday due to "congestion". He was under intensive care until he died.
"When we had dinner last night, he asked all of his children to attend," Pontjo recounted.
Ibnu is survived by his wife, two sons, five daughters and 21 grandchildren.
Paying homage to the deceased at his residence on Jl. Tanjung in South Jakarta were, among others, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Rizal Ramli, former vice president Soedarmono, former state/minister secretary Moerdiono, former president Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, former chief of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Prabowo Subianto and Bank Indonesia director Miranda Goeltom.
A retired army lieutenant general, Ibnu was buried in the Kalibata cemetery in South Jakarta later in the day in a military ceremony presided over by Kostrad chief Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu.
Born on Sept. 23, 1914 in Grobogan, Central Java, Ibnu graduated from the NIAS colonial medical school in 1914 in Jakarta. He was active in the independence struggle against Dutch colonial rule.
He was named by the new Republic of Indonesia as South Sumatra's military commander in 1955 and assigned two years later with the task of establishing oil and gas company Permina. The company was renamed Pertamina in the late 1960s.
He led Pertamina from 1968 to 1976 and developed the company from scratch into a company respected by the world's oil and gas industry.
Under his leadership of Pertamina, Indonesia achieved a record oil output of more than 1.5 million barrels per day.
He also took credit for introducing the production sharing contract (PSC) system, which has been copied by many countries.
In addition, he was responsible for developing the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in Arun, Aceh and Bontang, East Kalimantan in the early 1970s, laying the groundwork for Indonesia to become the world's largest LNG exporter today.
But, to the younger generation, Ibnu was mostly known as a corrupt figure who almost brought Pertamina to bankruptcy in the mid-1970s with a total debt of US$10.5 billion following a tanker deal with a Swiss-based entrepreneur by the name of Bruce Rappaport.
He was accused by Soeharto's administration of corruption and was fired in 1976. But no court trial was ever held to examine the case.
In an interview with The Jakarta Post two years ago, he broke his decades-long silence, saying that the corruption charges were unsubstantiated and that he was fired by Soeharto because he turned down Soeharto's proposal for a crude oil business deal. (02/jsk)