Pertamina to launch market operation to stabilize LPG prices

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina will launch a market operation to lower the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which has soared to levels higher than the company's official prices, Investor Daily reported on Wednesday.

"If the retailers continue to sell the LPG above the official price levels this week, we will have no other choice but to launch a market operation so that customers will be able to buy LPG at normal prices," Pertamina's president director Widya Purnama said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Widya said that the retailers raised the price of the LPG to compensate the higher transportation costs resulting from the recent increase in fuel prices.

He also said that rumors that Pertamina had run out of LPG stocks had also caused LPG rush in many parts of the country was baseless.

Pertamina last week imported about three cargoes of LPG to ensure that the stocks would be more than sufficient until the end of this year. He admitted that the stocks had slightly declined last month due to technical problem in Balikpapan's LPG processing plant and the overhaul of a similar plant in the Cilacap oil refinery complex.

"But at present, the two LPG processing plants have resumed their normal operation," he added.

Pertamina's president director also assured that Pertamina would not raise the price of LPG at least until the end of this year. "We assure the public that there would not be an increase in LPG prices at least until Christmas," he added. (*)