Pertamina to recalculate CNG prices

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina will recalculate the price of compressed natural gas (CNG) following the government?s plan to lower the price of CNG in order to encourage more people to use gas for their vehicles, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Saturday.

PT Pertamina president director Ari H. Soemarno said his company will recalculate the standard price of CNG. But he asserted that the government?s new price of CMG will not incur losses on Pertamina.

??What is clear is, whatever the CNG price is, Pertamina do not want to suffer losses. There must be some margin. It?s clear we don?t want losses,? he said.

If the government wants to lower CNG prices, it must provide subsidy. If there is no subsidy, Pertamina will not lower its CNG price.

Earlier government plans to lower the price of compressed natural gas (CNG) to below Rp3,000 per liter equivalent in bid to encourage more people to use gas for their vehicles.

The plan was unveiled by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro. He said that his office was studying the possibility of reducing the CNG price to as low as Rp2,200 per liter equivalent as proposed by the ministry of the transportation. (*)