Irak chooses Perta Oil: Minister

Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab acknowledged on Thursday that he recommended Petra Oil to the Iraq government, but it was the Iraq government that chose Petra to import US$500 million worth of crude oil from Iraq to Indonesia.

Alwi said besides Perta Oil, Pertamina and the government also presented about 20 oil trading companies to the Iraq government to choose. But Iraq chose Perta Oil.

"Perta Oil is related with Pertamina, and it is a good trading company and it used to get an order from Iraq. So, when we make our recommendation, we include it. But Perta is not the only company we recommended," Alwi said on the sidelines of a seminar in Jakarta.

The $500 million crude oil import from Iraq was part of the Indonesian government's barter deal with the Gulf country. In return, Indonesia would export food and medicine to Iraq. It is part of the UN's sponsored oil for food program for Iraq which is still under the UN economic embargo.

Earlier, the president of state oil firm Pertamina, Baihaki Hakim, said that three ministers, including Alwi, had recommended Perta Oil to Iraq. The other ministers are the mines and energy minister and the industry and trade minister.

Alwi, however, acknowledged that he and the other ministers involved in recommending Perta to Iraq decided to select Perta out of the 20 trading companies.

"In my opinion, it's better to include all those companies... But one said that if all the 20 companies were presented, we would be judged that we were unable to select... So, we selected them," he said.

To avoid further debates, Alwi said that the government would present other names besides Perta to the Iraq government to consider.

Alwi also denied rumors that he was one of Perta's commissioners.

According to Baihaki, Perta is currently controlled by Pertamina after the state oil firm bought out ownership by other shareholders, including Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo and cousin Sudwikatmono. (*)