Pertamina to import more crude from Middle East
Saturday, September 2 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
State oil and gas firm Pertamina plans to import an additional of 50,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Middle Eastern countries following the company's plan to process more crude in Singapore's refinery plants starting October, 2000.
Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim said that he would meet representatives of Saudi Arabia in the next ministerial meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Venezuela starting Sept. 10.
"Next week, when we are attending an OPEC meeting in Venezuela, we will discuss that with our partners from Saudi Arabia," Baihaki said.
He explained that so far his party had been importing around 100,000 barrels per day of crude from Aramco of Saudi to be processed into fuels in a number of domestic refinery plants.
Indonesia exports its high-grade crude oil but import lower-grade crude oil for domestic consumption.
Baihaki said Pertamina cooperated with Shell and Exxon Mobil Singapore to process the additional crude.
He noted that the increasing importation of crude and the fuel refining abroad serves as an effort by Pertamina to increase domestic fuel stocks from the level enough for 23 days now to the level enough for 25 days starting this month. (*)