Chevron accused of breaching anti-trust law in dealing with Pertamina
Thursday, February 15 2001 - 04:30 AM WIB
The Presidium of Total Reform Monitoring (PPRT) said it will report Chevron Research and Technology to the Commercial Attach? of the American embassy for allegedly breaking the anti-trust law in the supply of its atmospheric residue hydro demetalization (ARHDM) Run 6 for Pertamina's Balongan oil refinery plant, Media Indonesia reported on Thursday.
The organization said that the United States-based Chevron, according to the report of the Attorney General to the House of Representatives (DPR), was awarded in 1994 to supply the catalyst to the Balongan refinery plant for seven years.
"If the report is true, Chevron breached the American Anti-Trust Law, because under the law, the American companies are allowed only to supply the same products to the same company for a maximum of two years," the coordinator of the presidium Mumtaz Malik told the daily.
He said that the presidium demanded the American embassy to take Chevron to a court in the United States for breaching the anti-trust law.
The Attorney General early last week reported the result of its initial investigation on charges of corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) practices in Pertamina.
According to the Attorney General's report, the then director of processing of Pertamina, Samto Utomo sent a letter to the general manager of the Balongan in Feb. 25, 2000 asking him to procure two trains of catalysts. But Samto emphasized in its letter that only one train of the catalyst should be procured through a tender process while the other one should go directly to Chevron.
However, Samto's replacement Ariffi Nawawi, according to the Attorney General's allegation, decided to procure all the two trains of catalysts from PT Indahsana Gema Reksa, the Indonesian sole distributor of Chevron, without passing through a tender process.
"This clearly proved that Ariffi had conducted KKN practices," Mumtaz said.
According to Mumtaz, Pertamina has given much information to the Attorney General related to KKN practices in the company. But much of the information misled the public.
He said according to the information provided by Pertamina, other catalyst producer Criterion could not join the tender in the supply of catalyst to the state oil and gas company because it failed in November last year to pass the so called fully aging test.
"This information indicates that there is a conspiracy between Pertamina and the president of Criterion, Brian Stopp to annul its own statement," he said.
According to a statement issued by Pertamina's former director for processing Samto Utomo, Criterion had passed series of fully aging tests carried out between 1997 and 1998 or for a total of 6,000 hours.
The wrong information given by Pertamina, according to Mumtaz, included the pricing of the catalyst in which Chevron offered $13,439,527 while Criterion at $11,224,710. According to him, the truth is that Chevron initially offered $17,685,036 but it later reduced the price to $13,439,527 after the alleged corruption have been leaked to the public. (*)