Unleaded gasoline introduced

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned oil company Pertamina introduced yesterday unleaded gasoline, called Super TT, with a retail price of Rp 1,000 (US$0.44) per liter, including the 10 percent value added tax.

"This is part of the government's program to decrease air pollution and provide the motorists with an alternative," the company's president, Faisal Abda'oe, told reporters after the launching ceremony.

He said that the unleaded gasoline is produced by the country's first export-oriented refinery, called Exor I, at Balongan, West Java.

The Balongan refinery which was dedicated by President Soeharto on May 24, has a daily processing capacity of 125,000 barrels and produces a wide variety of oil products.

PT Elnusa, a subsidiary of Pertamina, has been appointed the sole distributor of 50,000 liters of unleaded gasoline per year for the Jakarta market only.

Abda'oe said the possibility of involving private companies to distribute the unleaded gasoline is still open.

"We may invite private companies which belong to the Premix distributor union," he said.

Elnusa's president, Azwad Dipo, said that the company would initially concentrate on the marketing of unleaded gasoline in the capital city.

"In the future, we may expand our market to other major cities," he said.

He acknowledged that the price of unleaded gasoline is more expensive than regular gasoline, which is sold throughout the country at Rp 700 per liter and the higher-quality gasoline, Premix, at Rp 870 per liter.

Dipo said that Elnusa had set up seven unleaded gasoline filling stations in Jakarta.

The chairman of the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association, Herman Z. Latief, said that the unleaded gasoline is suitable for Japanese cars which were made after 1983.

"The engines of the automotive vehicles produced after 1983 were designed for the environment-friendly gasoline," he said.(04)