Lead injection at Balongan closed

Balongan fuel refinery plant, belonging to Pertamina, has closed its tetra ethylene lead (TEL) injection facilities in a bid to produce unleaded gasoline, Koran Tempo reported on Saturday.

The general manager of Balongan refinery, M. Soehartono, said that the closure of lead injection was to meet the government's target to supply only unleaded gasoline to Jakarta by July 1 and all parts of the country by year 2003.

Soehartono revealed that Balongan refinery plant had gradually reduced the level of lead injected to gasoline to 0.3 cubic centimeters per gallon of gasoline as of April 15, to 0.2 cc as of May 15 and 0.1 cc as of early June.

He said by July 1, gasoline produced by Balongan would technically be free from lead. Nevertheless, it would not be totally free as some levels of lead may still be left at the piping lines of the refinery plant. It would need some times to make the gasoline produced by Balongan to be totally free from lead.

The executive director of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), Ahmad Safrudin, welcomed the closure of lead injection at Balongan, saying that it would help reduce Jakarta from lead pollution. (*)