Pertamina to increase capacity of LPG receiving tanks

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina will lease a semi-refrigerated liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker with a capacity of 8,000 tons and increase its receiving tank capacity by 30,000 tons to solve the LPG scarcity problem.

Pertamina's deputy director for commerce and marketing affairs Hanung Budya Yuktyanta said in Jakarta Wednesday that the semi-refrigerated LPG tanker to be leased is equipped with a facility enabling the semi-refrigerated LPG taken from an LPG refinery to be processed into pressurized LPG while being transported to the designated area and in this way, the LPG loaded in 12 kg-LPG containers can be directly distributed to consumers and it is unnecessary to provide additional LPG receiving tanks.

"Next week we will lease a semi-refrigerated LPG tanker with a capacity of 8,000 tons and hopefully, the tanker will arrive and unload (the LPG) at the port (Tanjung Priok port) on April 10," he said.

Ideally, he said, the national LPG stock should be in the safe position of 14 days or around 50,000 tons with the consumption level of 3,500 tons per day.

To solve the problem of the lack of LPG receiving tanks, Pertamina will soon operate a LPG receiving tank with a capacity of 10,000 tons in Indramayu, West Java starting August of this year.

"Hopefully, with the leased semi-refrigerator LPG tanker and the operation of a LPG receiving tank in Indramayu, the LPG scarcity problem can be solved," he said.

Earlier, Processing Director Suroso Atmomartoyo said that four cargoes of LPG from Singapore have arrived with another three expected by the end of the month. Seven more cargoes will arrive in early April, he said. One cargo usually carries 2,000 tonnes of LPG. (godang)