Pertamina to open international tender to buy oil tankers

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina will open an international tender to buy oil tankers in a bid to reduce the use of chartered ships which at present comprise about 80 percent of its tanker fleet, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.

Manager for ship fleet planning and procurement, Ibnu Nugroho Pangestu, said in Surabaya on Thursday that Pertamina would need about 38 tankers, with capacity of 3,500 DWT, for the transportation of its oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG),

The tankers will be acquired until 2008. Pertamina will tender the purchase of large tankers to international ship builders in Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore, while the ships with a capacity of up to 3,500 DWT will be offered to local companies, he added.

He said that Pertamina hoped that 10 of the 38 tankers, which would be purchased, would be delivered within the next two years. At present, Pertamina has 31 oil tankers or about 20 percent of the tankers needed by the company to transport its crude oil, LNG and other products such as asphalt, and paraxyline.

Earlier Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim said that the state owned oil and gas company needed at least 20 tankers with a capacity of between 5,000 and 30,000 DWT to transport the company?s crude and processed oil through shallow sea.(*)