Pertamina president guarantees national fuel supplies

Although the fuel port in Belawan, Medan, is destroyed, and the Balikpapan II refinery is burned, state oil and gas firm Pertamina guarantees the safety of national fuel supplies.

Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim said that it would send its crude oil to Singapore to be processed into fuels. Baihaki said that Pertamina currently had enough stocks, and therefore there would be no fuel shortage despite the incidents in the two locations.

He added that Balikpapan II refinery would resume its normal operation in three-day time, and therefore, Pertamina's national stocks would only be reduced by three-day consumption, and therefore it would be still enough for 20 days of consumption, from the normal level of 23 days.

"We hope the people will not go panic. The explosion in Plant 5 Platformer of Balikpapan refinery II will be compensated with the processing deal with Singapore Oil Company. I have been given a confirmation on this. Tomorrow, a delegation from Singapore will come here to realize it," he said.

The exploded Balikpapan refinery II has production capacity of 200,000 barrels of fuels per day (or 20 percent of the national production level), while the capacity of Balikpapan refinery I only stands at 60,000 barrels of fuels per day.

To compensate the shortage, Pertamina would send 200,000 barrels of crude per day to Singapore for processing.

Pertamina would supply fuels for Eastern part of Indonesia from its Dumai refinery in Riau and from Cilacap refinery in Central Java. It will also increase fuel imports for Eastern Indonesian.

While to handle fuel supplies in Northern Sumatra island, following the breakdown of the piping mechanism in the Belawan port, Pertamina will conduct single point mooring scheme in distributing fuels for Northern Sumatra. For Aceh province, supplies would be channeled through Lhokseumawe. (*)