Pertamina to import more crude oil in February

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina plans to increase its crude oil imports to between 3 to 7 million barrels of crude oil in February from between 3 and 4 million normally, Koran Tempo daily reported on Thursday.

Pertamina’s deputy president director for crude oil processing, Dwi Kushartoyo, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the increase would be made because there was a delay in the crude import for January.

“We hope the crude oil import for March will return to normal,” he said, adding that the state owned oil company also imported crude oil from Australia, Vietnam and West Africa in addition to the Middle East to feed some of its oil processing plants.

Although Indonesia is one of major crude oil exporters in Asia, it still imports crude oil to feed some of its oil processing plants. Most of the refineries owned by Pertamina require lighter types of crude oil, while most of Indonesia’s crude oils are those of heavier types.

Aside from crude oil, Indonesia also imports oil fuel to meet the local demand as Pertamina's refineries are unable to meet all the demads. Indonesia imports between 15 and 20 percent of its annual 60 million kiloliters fuel demands. (*)