Pertamina's old tankers head for the scrap yard

JAKARTA (JP): The state oil and gas company Pertamina will scrap 12 tankers that it has sailed for 20 years and replace them with new ones, the company's junior director, Ilham Sjarief, said yesterday.

"We have set up a special team to implement the scrapping plan," he said. The special team includes representatives from the ministries of finance, mines and energy and transportation.

He said Pertamina had proposed to the Ministry of Finance that it scrap the 12 tankers -- with an average 6,500 tonnage -- in 1997. Six of them were likely to be scrapped within two months.

He said some of the 12 tankers might not be scrapped because they were still sea-worthy. "But it is up to the special team to decide," he said, adding that those to be scrapped would be sold to PT Krakatau Steel and the sea-worthy ones would be auctioned.

Ilham said his company would replace the 12 tankers with new ones, but refused to say more on their procurement.

"I don't know yet. The team will decide how we'll procure the new ones. It will also decide whether to buy them from foreign countries or from local suppliers," he said.

The 12 tankers are among the 187 ships operated by Pertamina to transport crude oil and oil products. Seventy of them are owned by Pertamina and 110 are chartered under long-term contracts.

The 187 ships carried 4.3 million tons this year.

When asked, he refused to say who owned the chartered ships but added that Pertamina would always run tenders for the shipping services that it used at home and abroad and would only invite bids from local shipping companies. (bnt)