Pertamina to allocate US$70 million for procurement of six oil tankers

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina will allocate funds amounting to about US$70 million next year to finance the procurement of six new oil tankers, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Saturday.

Ari Sumarno, Pertamina's marketing director said in Surabaya on Friday that the new oil tankers were needed to strengthen the company's crude oil and fuel distribution in the country.

He said that at present Pertamina operated 135 tankers of different sizes but the number was no longer enough to support the company's growing oil shipment activities. "Some of them which have been operated for more than 20 years have to be rejuvenated," he said at a ceremony on the handover of a new tanker MT Plaju from shipbuilding company PT Dok dan Perkapalan in Surabaya.

MT Plaju, one of three tankers ordered by Pertamina at PT Dok dan Perkapalan, costs Pertamina about US$11 million. The other three tankers are being built in other local shipbuilding companies.

Ari said that besides purchasing new tankers, Pertamina would also renovate 10 of its existing tankers as part of the company's program to strengthen its oil tanker fleet (*)