Pertamina gives $14.9m contract to McKinsey

PT Pertamina has hired international consultant McKinsey Company to give advice on how transform the state owned company into a profitable enterprise.

Speaking during the hearing with the House of Representatives on Wednesday, company president Ari Soemarno said that McKinsey had been awarded a contract worth US$14.9 million on July 31, 2006 to carry out a study for one year on the strategy that should be taken by the state owned company to reform itself.

For decades until the issuance of the new Oil and Gas Law in 2001 that revokes Pertamina?s monopoly in the industry, Pertamina acted as the government?s agency to supervise oil and gas contractors as well as to ensure the availability of fuel supplies across the country. Since it does no longer carry out the tasks, the company now has to work hard to make itself into a profit-oriented enterprise and it needs a good strategy to reach the goal.

According to Ari, McKinsey was selected through a beauty contest involving a number of international consultants, including Accenture Consulting, Boston Consulting Group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ben & Co. (Godang)