Losses caused by oil theft on Tampino-Plaju pipeline decline

By Godang Sitompul

Losses caused by oil thefts on the oil pipeline linking Tempino in Jambi and Plaju in South Sumatra has been on the declining trend, according to PT Pertamina EP, the upstream unit of state owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina.

?We hope the losses can further decline,?Bagus Sudaryanto, Operational Director of Pertamina EP, told Petromindo.com on Monday.

He did not specify the reason behind the decline. But, the Indonesian National Military (TNI) recently deployed military police officers to guard the pipeline. It was in response to Pertamina?s suspicion that some rouge military members and police officers were involved in the oil thefts.

According to the firm?s data, the pipeline channeled a total volume of 20,369 barrels of oil on Thursday, July 12. Of the amount, 943 barrels or 8.13 percent were missing during transmission. On Sunday, July 15, of the total volume of 22,641 barrels, 991 barrels or 7.38 percent were missing during transmission.

In comparison, loss rate in June averaged 2,100 bpd in June, Bagus said, adding the amount of oil missing during transmission on the pipeline reached 63,000 barrels during the month.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon