Indonesia to rely on Saudi?s crude if war breaks in Iraq
Tuesday, January 7 2003 - 02:40 PM WIB
Indonesia is a crude producer itself but differences in price and grade make it advantageous in some cases for the archipelago to import oil for its own refineries while exporting local crude.
Indonesia, Asia's only OPEC member, has no capacity to add to its oil production, with output currently below the cartel quota of 1.192 million barrels per day (BPD).
"I have got confirmation from Saudi Arabia that the supply of crude oil from that country will not be disturbed if war erupts in that region. We are safe," Purnomo told reporters.
"Indonesia has a contract covering crude with Saudi Arabia and Algeria. Indonesia is also buying crude from the spot market for domestic refineries," he said.
He said Indonesia had enough oil products stocks, adding it would not be difficult to source from Singapore if more were needed.
Last week, Pertamina issued a buy tender for February oil products, seeking less gasoline and slim quantities of jet fuel, while omitting requests for fuel oil, gas oil and kerosene.
A Pertamina official said Indonesia was importing around five million barrels of crude oil every month and had 27 days of oil products stocks.
The official said a crude processing deal was still under negotiation between Pertamina and foreign refiners. He gave no details.
Indonesian refineries have a combined capacity of around one million BPD.
Indonesia's crude oil production fell to 1.05 million BPD in December, compared with 1.12 million BPD in November, industry sources have said. The country's condensate BPD in November. (*)