Revealed! Riza Chalid's Role in the Alleged Petral Corruption Case
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has once again designated Muhammad Riza Chalid (MRC) as a suspect in the alleged corruption case concerning the procurement of crude oil and refinery products at Pertamina Energy Trading Limited (Petral) for the period 2008-2015. In this case, MRC was designated along with six other suspects.
This designation adds to the list of cases ensnaring Riza Chalid, after he had previously been named a suspect in the alleged corruption case involving crude oil governance from 2018-2023.
Director of Investigations for the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, explained that during the 2008-2015 period, irregularities were found in the procurement of crude oil and refinery products that did not comply with regulations.
According to him, investigators discovered leaks of confidential internal information from Pertamina Energy Services (PES) regarding crude oil and gasoline needs, allegedly carried out by one of the suspects.
MRC, as the beneficial owner (BO) of several companies involved in the process, along with other suspects initialled IRW, influenced the procurement or tender process for crude oil, refinery products, and transportation.
“So, essentially, Mr MRC through Mr IRW conducted communications with procurement officials both at PETRAL and Pertamina, including with suspect BBG, Mr IRW, Mr MLY, and Mr TFK. These communications involved conditioning the tender, providing HPS value information leading to mark-ups or overpriced costs because the procurement became non-competitive,” said Syarief at a press conference on Thursday (9/4/2026).
Furthermore, Syarief explained that to accommodate the interests of MRC and IRW, in June 2012, BBG, AGS, NRD, and MLY allegedly issued guidelines that contradicted the minutes of a Pertamina board meeting.
Following the tender process, Pertamina Energy Services (PES) along with company YR then signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the procurement of refinery products for the 2012-2014 period.
“The tender process for crude oil procurement resulted in a longer supply chain and higher prices, especially for Gasoline 88 or what we know as Premium and Gasoline 92. This caused losses to PT Pertamina,” he said.
In this case, the investigation team has named seven suspects as follows:
BBG (Marketing and Trading Manager, Directorate of Marketing and Trading, PT Pertamina)
AGS (Head of Trading, PES from 2012-2014)
MLY (Senior Trader, PETRAL from 2009-2015)
NRD
TFK (VP ISC, PT Pertamina)
MRC (Beneficial Owner of several companies participating in the tender)
IRW (Director of companies owned by MRC).