Pertamina to import 8 million barrels of Premium and diesel

State oil and gas firm Pertamina will import eight million barrels of Premium and diesel this January, or about the same amount it imported in December, The Jakarta Post reported Saturday.

Pertamina fuel division head Djaelani Sutomo said Friday that Pertamina would import 4.5 million barrels of Premium and 3.5 million barrels of diesel in January as it had managed to maintain oil production at 1.006 million barrels per day during the month.

?With the same additional amount of imported oil, we will have enough supplies for January,? Djaelani said, adding that its current stock of Premium fuel was sufficient for 23 days, while the diesel would last 16 days and the kerosene 34 days.

He added that the import volume for February would be lower than January?s figure as the second month of the year had fewer days.

Pertamina also said that it would ask the government to delay a regulation cutting sulfur content in diesel so it could prepare one of its refineries for the new specifications.

Pertamina trading and marketing deputy director Hanung Budya said that the Cilacap refinery, which had a capacity of 340,000 barrels a day, was not able to produce diesel with a sulfur content of 0.35 percent.

?We will ask that the government delays the regulation for fuel from Cilacap refinery in Central Java province,? Budya was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

Other refineries are producing diesel with sulfur content lower than that required. Hanung declined to say how long the company needed to revamp the Cilacap refinery.

The government in March last year informed Pertamina and other companies that they must cut the sulfur content of diesel sold in Indonesia to 0.35 percent from 0.5 percent out of concern for the environment. The companies were given one year to comply with the new rule. (*)