ExxonMobil refuses to pay Pertamina's US$3 million claim

PT ExxonMobil Indonesia (EMOI), a major gas producer in Lhok Seumawe, northern Aceh, has insisted that it will not pay the pipeline rental payment worth US$3 million claimed by Pertamina's North Sumatra operation unit until the state owned oil and gas company provides a reliable proof to back its claim, Investor Daily reported on Friday.

"We will pay the claim only if Pertamina is able to show us the proof to support the claim," EMOI's vice president for public affairs Maman Budiman said in Jakarta on Thursday.

He admitted that Pertamina had sent the invoice for the use of its gas pipeline but the amount of the payment requested by the state-owned oil and gas company was different with EMOI's calculation.

The financial dispute began in 2001, when Pertamina requested EMOI to pay the rental fee of its pipeline in the amount of about US$3 million. "We were asked to pay for a thing that we did not know," Maman said.

According to Pertamina, EMOI had to pay the rental fee for the use of its pipeline. The gas pipeline was used by EMOI to supply gas to two fertilizer producers Pupuk Iskandar Muda and ASEAN Aceh Fertilizer plants.

Maman said that the fee had been paid in cash. "It had been paid by deducting a part of the gas payment from the two fertilizer companies," he added. (*)