Pertamina to open more COCO fuel outlets next year

State oil and gas firm PT Pertainma (Persero) said on Tuesday that it will open 24 additional COCO fuel stations across the country next year to improve services and provide customers greater access to non-subsidized fuels.

Pertamina vice president for fuel retail Basuki Trikora Putra said the new fuel stations would be located in large cities such as Bandung, Surabaya, Makassar, Medan and Jakarta.

Pertamina currently operates 63 COCO fuel stations nationwide, he said. COCO (corporate owned and corporate operated) stations are retail outlets owned and directly operated by Pertamina. Most Pertamina outlets are operated under franchising contracts with other companies.

?The construction of COCO fuel stations is slow because we decided to only build them in strategic places. We need to conduct in-depth studies on the planned areas? economic potentials first?, he told reporters at the launch of a new COCO fuel station in Kemang, South Jakarta.

There are 4,300 fuel stations currently operating under the Pertamma name across Indonesia, 768 of which are located in Greater Jakarta. Most of the stations are owned and operated by other companies, and only 63 are directly owned and operated by Pertamina. (bernard)