Pertamina sees domestic fuel consumption up in 2002

Despite the planned fuel price hike this month, state oil and gas firm Pertamina expects domestic fuel consumption would continue to raise.

? Based on 3.5 percent economic growth assumption, we predict domestic fuel consumption for 2002 at around 56 to 57 million kiloliters,? said Tutty Anggraeni, a senior official at Pertamina downstream directorate on Monday.

She said that for 2001, domestic fuel consumption was 54.8 million kiloliters, exceeding the fuel consumption target set by the House of Representative by 200,000 kiloliters.

According to Tutty, for 2002, the House of Representative so far only approves 52.7 million kiloliters of the heavily subsidized fuel for domestic consumption, which leaves some 2 to 3 million kiloliters supply-consumption potential gap.

She said that the more thorough survey to study domestic fuel consumption is currently being undertaken by surveyor firms Sucofindo and Surveyor Indonesia.

?The House of Representative might approve to increase the supply if the survey result confirm Pertamina?s estimate,? she said. (alex/godang)