Pertamina starts Petral?s liquidation process

State owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina started on Wednesday the liquidation process of its Singapore-based trading arm Petral Group, which handled the imports of crude oil and oil fuels into Indonesia for many decades.

The previous function of Petramina has been fully taken over by the firm?s division called Integrated Supply Chain (ISC). In line with the liquidation of Petral, Pertamina has started reforming ISC?s management and business process, the firm said in a statement on Wednesday.

The move is fully supported by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said and is in line with the recommendation from the Oil and Gas Business Reform Team, Pertamina?s President Director Dwi Soetjipto said.

Dwi said Pertamina will strengthen ISC?s function in Jakarta and the unit has been performing its task since the past January. Based on evaluation in the first quarter of 2015, Pertamina concludes that ISC has been doing its job good enough and has brought significant efficiency for Pertamina.

?Pertamina?s management is of the opinion that Petral Group?s role is no longer significant and material for Petamina. As such, Pertamina has decided to start the liquidation process of Petral Group through necessary legal phases and continue the efforts of empowering ISC as the center of crude oil exports and imports and oil fuels for Pertamina,? he said, adding that Pertamina will carry out the process of taking over all Petral?s assets.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon