Pertamina to establish holding companies in 2004

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina will establish two separate holding companies for upstream and downstream sectors and several subsidiaries in 2004, several local newspapers reported on Saturday.

This corporate action is in line with the oil and gas Law No. 22/2002 under which Pertamina has became a limited liability company.

“We must do this in 2004, because Pertamina’s status has been changed to a limited liability company,” Pertamina’s business and resources development director Eteng Salam told reporters in Jakarta on Friday.

He said Pertamina will in the beginning prioritize downstream sector as it has been assigned by the government to take care of the downstream activities, especially to maintain oil stock and distribution.

Pertamina, according to Eteng, will establish between five and nine subsidiaries, which will deal with oil and gas business in both downstream and upstream sectors. Later it will establish a super holding company to manage all these companies.

A special team is working on establishing the subsidiaries and super holding company.

“We’re trying to speed up the transformation process. For 2004, we will give priority to subsidiaries in downstream sector and followed by companies in upstream sector in 2005,” Eteng said. (*)