Foreign vessels continue to be in operation

Two foreign offshore vessels which had been earlier implicated in a fake document case can now be operated in the Indonesian waters following the issuance of permit by the Ministry of Transportation.

The two vessels called Workover SS-1 and Workover FF-1 have obtained the so-called PPKA document from the Ministry of Transportation to operate at home for three months since the issuance of the document.

PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia's (CPI) vice president of policy, government and public affairs Yanto Sianipar said the two vessels which are operating within the company?s fields have obtained the legal PPKA document from the government.

?We have obtained the PPKA document for Workover SS-I and FF-1 for the next three months. We thank the director general for sea transportation which has issued the permit,? he said.

He said that going forward, Chevron would hold a tender to replace the two foreign-flagged vessels with Indonesian flagged vessels, but claims that he has no information yet on the schedule of the tender.

The presence of SS-I and FF-I in the Indonesian territory has been questioned since October 2010 because the two vessels had been implicated in fake document case, allegedly involving a company called PT Swasta Bahari Utama.

There has been demand earlier for the two vessels to be banned from operationg within the Indonesian territory, but it continued to operate at CPI?s oil fields until the ministry of transportation finally issued the PPKA document.

Leon Muhamad, director of sea transportation at the Ministry of Transportation, acknowledged that his office had issued the PPKA document for the two vessels to end the lingering polemic over the presence of the two vessels. ?That?s what BPMIGAS and the operator of shipping want.?

He added that the issuance of the document was for the sake of the greater economic interest of the nation. (*)