Oil losses on Tampino-Plaju pipeline declining but still high: Pertamina

By Godang Sitompul

Illegal tappings on the Tampino-Plaju oil pipeline in central Sumatra, owned by state owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina, resulted in oil losses amounting to a total of 29,795 barrels or 1,753 barrels per day this month until July 17.

Bagus Sudaryanto, Operational Director at Pertamina EP, the upstream arm of Pertamina, told Petromindo on Thursday that the oil losses represented 14.9 percent of the total volume channeled through the pipeline during the period.

In June, losses on the pipeline totaled 62,920 barrels or 2,097 bpd or 17.1 percent of the total transmitted volume.

?The loss rate has thus slightly declined. We hope it will further decline to 10 percent in September and continue to decline throughout the rest of the year,? he said.

The Indonesian National Military (TNI) has deployed military police officers to the region to help Pertamina crack down on the illegal tappings which has caused significant losses on Pertamina and the government. Pertamina suspects that rouge military members and police officers were involved in the illegal activities.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon