Pertamina sells aviation fuel to Shell

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina has sold about 200,000 barrels of aviation turbine (avtur) fuel to Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and plans to sell some more to other fuel retailers in neighboring countries of Malaysia and Thailand, Investor daily reported Monday.

?The first shipment was executed in early June. The sale to Shell is just for a spot-market basis because Shell needs additional supply to meet the request from a British airline,? Pertamina's spokesman Basuki Trikora Putra was quoted as saying in Jakarta over the weekend.

He, however, refused to elaborate about the price paid by Shell. ?It should be international market price,? he added.

When asked for commments on Sunday, Shell Indonesia?s spokesperson Fathia Syarif said she has yet confirm about the purchase with the company?s related officials.

Basuki said that in addition to Shell, PTT Thailand and Petroliam Nasional Berhard (Peronas) of Malaysia had also expressed interest to buy the fuel from Pertamina. He said that the fuel would be sold at a FoB price based on international prices.

He said that the sales would help Pertamina to reduce an oversupply of the fuel in its stocks.

According to him, Pertamina has been overstocked on the fuel since early this year after the company reprocessed part of the company?s diesel fuel and kerosene into jet fuel to reduce the oversupply.

Pertamina will export the fuel through its Singapore-based subsidiary Pertamina Energy Trading Limited (Petral). The export is expected to reach between 150,000 and 200,000 barrels per month. (*)