Pertamina to build another fuel storehouse in Cikampek

State oil and gas company Pertamina will soon build a new fuel storehouse in Cikampek, some 40 kilometers from Jakarta, in a bid to back up the operation of its main fuel depot in Plumpang, North Jakarta, Bisnis Indonesia reported Thursday.

Pertamina?s director for marketing and commerce, Tuty Anggraheni, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the construction of the new storehouse had been tendered and hopefully the winners would be announced this month

?It is now in the process of tender, but I could not disclose the value and the size of the project which will be built in Cikampek,? she was quoted as saying. She was also reluctant to disclose the bidders in the tender, saying it was the authority ?the central tender team.?

Tuty said that the new depot which would be equipped with a pipelining system would have a half of the capacity of the Plumpang depot. ?But the new fuel storehouse will only distribute 30 percent of the fuel needs, the other 70 percent would be still handled by the Pelumpang depot,? she added

The Plumpang depo, which at present supplies 62.9 percent of the fuel demand in Jakarta and West Java, and 20 percent of the national demand, had been severely flooded during the past several days. The floods had caused a stoppage in the distribution as most of many fuel tankers were damaged.

The distribution of the fuel to the Cikampek would be distributed through a pipeline network so that the oil supply would not be disrupted even if the area is flooded, she said, adding that the operation of the Plumpang and Cikampek fuel depots would be also backed up by the Padalarang and Tanjung Gerem fuel storehouses, in West Java. (*)