Pertamina reschedules fuel imports

State owned oil and gas Pertamina will schedule imports of seven cargos of gasoline this month until November due to a sharp decline in the domestic fuel demand, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.

Pertamina's spokesman M. Harun said in Jakarta on Thursday that Pertamina had signed contracts to import 15 cargoes of fuel comprising of gasoline, diesel oil and kerosene this month.

"We are negotiating to reschedule the delivery of 12 of the 15 cargoes from Singapore. The delivery of the seven cargos had been agreed to be delayed until November, instead of this month" he said.

Harun said that the fuel demand in the domestic market had dropped by about 35 percent to about 122,000 kiloliters per day from 185,000 kiloliters per day since the government raised the fuel prices by an average of 130 percent early this month.

Of the total, the demand for Premium gasoline dropped by about 40 percent to about 32,000 kiloliters per day from 55,000 kiloliters per day previously, Harun said. Pertamina estimated that the demand for Premium gasoline would reach about 37,000 kiloliters per day within the next month.

Pertamina imports an average of 10 million barrels of fuel products and 12 million barrels of crude oil a month to meet the country's fuel demand. (*)