Ari Soemarno vows to end Cepu dispute in 100 days
Thursday, March 9 2006 - 02:23 AM WIB
?We will wait and see how the new board of directors responds to the progress in negotiations,? State Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto on Wednesday evening after the inauguration of the new board of directors. ?(The operatorship) is a business-to-business deal between Pertamina and ExxonMobil,? he added.
?We fully understand that this is an urgent problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible,? Soemarno told reporters in Jakarta Wednesday, saying he is targeting a settlement with Exxon within 100 days of his appointment. ?Cepu's production is very important for the government of Indonesia and for the people.?
Soemarno, 57, was appointed as Pertamina's third president in five years at a ceremony at 7:30 p.m. in Jakarta. Soemarno, a chemical engineer who studied at Aachen University in Germany, was president director of Pertamina's trading unit Pertamina Trading Ltd., known as Petral, until August 2004.
Iin Arifin Takhyan, director general of oil and gas at the energy ministry, became vice president. Takhyan, 54, a petroleum engineer from the Bandung Institute of Technology, has been working at the energy ministry since 1978. He was Indonesia's representative at OPEC from 1998 to 1999 and appointed in 2004 as one of five commissioners overseeing the board of directors at Pertamina.
The government also replaced four Pertamina directors. Frederick Siahaan became finance director and Sukusen Soemarinda, Pertamina's head of the geothermal unit, was appointed upstream director.
Achmad Faisal, the company's deputy director of fuel marketing, was named marketing and trading director, replacing Soemarno. Sumarsono became human resources director. Suroso Atmomartoyo, director of processing, retained his position. (godang)