Pertamina?s new management to review all contracts

The new management of state oil and gas company Pertamina is reviewing all contracts signed by the previous management in a bid to filter out less profitable projects, The Jakarta Post and Investor Indonesia newspapers reported on Wednesday.

Pertamina president Ariffi Nawawi said on Tuesday that the review, the first major task to be carried out by the new management, was to get the firm focused on its main goal as a business entity -- that is to seek profit.

"In the future, Pertamina will only prioritize the profit-boosting projects. Pertamina will try to continuously increase its profits, now that it has become a limited liability company," Ariffi said.

"So, we are now reviewing all those projects because it would relate with the company's financing and scale of priorities. We hope the review will be completed by year-end."

While the details remain sketchy, the review could well lead to the cancellation of a number of projects being planned.

With increased profits, Pertamina will boost its competitive edge against new players who are ready to challenge its domination in the country's downstream sector, Ariffi said.

"We also plan to maintain our current strong infrastructure in order to better compete with those new players," he said, while expressing optimism that Pertamina under his leadership would be able to do all that.

Ariffi, a career Pertamina official, took the company's top post in September to replace Baihaki Hakim. He was previously a director in the company.

Upon taking the post, Ariffi said he would focus first on strengthening the organization, human resources and marketing sectors of the company, while also giving more attention to the lucrative petrochemical industry. (*)