Pertamina's founder Sutowo dies at 86

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)