Pertamina's unpaid debts reach US$732m
Pertamina's unpaid debts reach US$732m
JAKARTA (JP): State oil and gas company Pertamina has arrears
of about US$732 million to crude and fuel importers, shipping
companies and gas suppliers.
Pertamina president Soegianto said the company was behind in
debt payments because it had yet to receive payment from several
fuel gas buyers.
In addition, he said, Pertamina also had not received the
money from the government to offset the subsidies for the fuel
sales.
"Anyway, we shall find ways to settle the debt," he said in a
hearing with the House of Representatives's Commission VIII for
state budget and finance, and science and technology.
Soegianto said the debt included the payment of crude and fuel
imports to its former affiliates Perta Oil Marketing Ltd and
Permindo Trading oil, the payment of fuel and oil shipment to
shipping companies and the purchase of crude and gas to several
production sharing contractors.
The government has thus far yet to reimburse Pertamina Rp 12.1
trillion ($806 million) for fuel subsidies.
"Minister of Finance (Bambang Subianto) has promised to pay us
Rp 2.1 trillion of the unpaid fuel subsidies today," Soegianto
said.
The government has allocated fuel subsidies amounting to Rp
9.4 trillion for the current fiscal year on the assumption that
the average crude oil price is $14.5 per barrel and the exchange
rate averaged Rp 6,000 per dollar throughout the year.
The subsidy will rise by Rp 5 trillion whenever the rupiah's
value falls by Rp 1,000 against the dollar. The subsidy will thus
rise to Rp 34.4 trillion if the exchange rate averages Rp 10,000
per dollar this year.
Soegianto said Pertamina had been faced with difficulties in
importing fuel for several weeks amid the cash flow problem
following the rejection of Indonesian letters of credit (L/C)
abroad.
The company failed to import 900,000 barrels of crude oil from
Australia's Broken Hill Pty Ltd and Mobil Corp since both
companies demanded that Pertamina's L/Cs were guaranteed by first
class international banks.
The problem was solved after the central bank guaranteed the
company's L/Cs starting July 1, he said.
"I have not heard of any more problems in fuel and crude
imports after the central bank guaranteed our L/C," Soegianto
said.
He said Bank Indonesia would provide $100 million to guarantee
Pertamina's L/Cs, including $50 million to guarantee L/C for fuel
imports and $50 million for crude imports.
Indonesia, though a net oil exporting country, imports 15
percent of its annual fuel consumption of 52 million kiloliters
(325 million barrels) due to the limited capacity of Pertamina's
refineries.
Pertamina also imports about 71 million tons of crude oil from
Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Australia for its refineries to
produce certain kinds of fuel, asphalt and lubricating oil, which
cannot be made from Indonesian crude oil.
Pertamina finance director Hadi Sudibyo said during the
hearing that Pertamina still had $4.18 billion, 11.8 trillion
and Rp 485 billion in long term debt for the financing its
refinery and liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants projects.
But the company did not face any problems in paying off the
debt since it would be paid with the output of the plants, Hadi
said.
Soegianto said Pertamina had millions of dollars in
outstanding claims to its clients.
Several domestic air carriers, including Garuda Airlines, the
now closed Sempati Air and Merpati Airlines, for example, owed
the state oil company $30 million while gas buyers, including
state gas distributor PGN and state electricity company PLN, owed
about $150 million. (jsk)