Pertamina's assets in Hongkong confiscated
Wednesday, July 14 2004 - 03:16 AM WIB
Petral is a subsidiary of Pertamina.
The newspaper said that Petral and its assets were confiscated by the curator of Karaha Bodas which two years ago won an international arbitrary decision to raise compensation worth about UIS$296 million from Pertamina.
Pertamina's Hongkong-based official said that although the confiscation had not been approved by the local district court, the company's assets had technically been frozen. "If Pertamina lost during the court's trial which would be held today (Wednesday), the confiscation would be definitive," he said.
KBC's curator had also seized the asset of Petral's office in Singapore as part of its hunt for Pertamina's assets overseas. Sources said that KBC through its lawyers had asked Pertamina to pay US$15 million for Petral Hongkong and another US$20 million for Petral Singapore to prevent the two subsidiaries from being liquidated.
The decision whether or not Pertamina will heed the requirement would be decided during the upcoming Cabinet meeting, he said.
Karaha Bodas sued Pertamina on the behalf of the government through the International Arbitrary Agency for the suspension of its geothermal project in Karaha, West Java in 1997. Pertamina were then asked to pay a compensation of US$261 million but the state-owned oil and gas company refused to settle the payment.
Karaha Bodas Company's claim to state owned oil and gas company Pertamina sharply increased to US$290 million at the end of 2003 from only about US$262 million due to the accumulation of interest payment.
The Karaha Bodas project is one of dozens of mega projects which were suspended by the government after the financial crisis hit the country in late 1997. The government, however, revoked the decision in 1998 after protests from developers, Caithness Energy, Florida Power, Japan Tomen Power and their local partner PT Sumarah Daya Sakti. But in early 1998, the government again issued a decree to re-suspend the project. (*)