Pertamina seeks to settle Karaha Bodas case through G to G
Tuesday, December 2 2003 - 02:55 AM WIB
Pertamina?s finance director Alfred A. Rohimone said his company has already hold talks with several ministries to settle the dispute quickly.
?I am in the process of solving this problem. I already met Pak Djatun (Coordinating Minister for Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti), Pak Pur (Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro) and Foreign Minister (Hassan Wirayuda), so that the case will be solved soon through G to G,? Alfred told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of a function to celebrate Idul Fitri at the ministry of finance in Jakarta.
Settling this dispute through G to G is urgently needed, because the efforts to solve the case through the courts have not yet succeeded, he said.
?KBC dispute can be solved if the United States administration gives its support,? he added.
KBC has filed a suit against Pertamina in the arbitration court in Geneva, Switzerland and won the case in 2001.
The court has ordered Pertamina to pay US$261 million in compensation to KBS for canceling a joint power plant project during the late 1990s financial crisis.
But Pertamina said the project was only worth of $111 million and it was ready to pay the same amount. The KBC rejected Pertamina?s offer.
Pertamina and KBS are scheduled to hold talks in New York in this month to settle the dispute.
Several bank accounts belonging to Pertamina in the U.S were frozen by U.S. courts.
Currently, Pertamina is struggling to get back the frozen $650 million from its 12 accounts in the U.S. banks. Though the New York Court had ordered the banks to return the money to Pertamina, it has not received the money so far.
Pertamina says the money in the frozen bank accounts belongs to the government.
If the U.S. state department informs the court that the frozen money belongs to the Indonesian government, the KBC case will be settled easily, Alfred said. (*)