Bumi Asri enters non-subsidized fuel business

Local firm PT Bumi Asri Prima Pratama (BAPP), a subsidiary of publicly-listed PT Humpuss Intermoda, has entered non-subsidized fuel business, targeting customers in marine areas.

 

BAPP's director Theo Satria Chairuman said on Wednesday that the company focused on providing and distributing non-subsidized fuel with ship-to-ship transfer (STST) method. “In this way, we can save transportation cost because our ships will not have to dock at a seaport,” he said on Wednesday.

 

Theo said that currently the company is able to sell 5,000 kiloliters (kl) of diesel oil per month compared with the target of between 8,000 and 10,000 kl per month. The demand for fuel in the country's marine areas reaches 2.1 million kl a year.

 

He said that the company received fuel supplies from Malaysia’s Petronas, Singapore’s BB Energy and Singapore’s ChemOil.

 

The company’s points of distribution spread throughout four regions, namely Belawan in North Sumatra, Gresik in East Java, Tanjung Priok in Jakarta and Tual in Maluku.

 

BAPP uses four tankers, rented from Humpuss, to support the business.

 

The fuel products to be sold by Bumi Asri include fuel oil, gasoil, kerosene, gasoline, avaiation turbine fuel.

 

Meanwhile, the director of downstream business development at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Erie Soedarmo said that imports of non-subsidized fuel conducted by private companies, such as Shell, Petronas and AKR Corporindo reached 400,000 kl in 2006. “With the entry of Bumi Asri, the import of non-subsidized fuel by companies outside Pertamina may reach over 400,000 kl,” he said. 

  

Currently, the government is processing the issuance of a license for fuel business applied by Humpuss. “But we do not know yet whether the company will build gasoline stations or oil storage for the business,” he said. (Bernard)