Pertamina to tender construction of Balaraja fuel storage facility in July

State oil and gas firm Pertamina will in July 2003 open tender to build a fuel storage facility in Balaraja in Banten province, thus annulling its plan to contract PT Pandan Wangi to carry out the project, Pertamina president director Baihaki Hakim said Tuesday.

?Pertamina will open tender to construct the facility in July. A team of experts from Pertamina has studied the project,? Baihaki told reporters.

Baihaki said according to the results of the study, the fuel storage project was valued at US$37.5 million, well down from $99.9 million proposed by Pandan Wangi.

The project will have capacity to store 95,000 kiloliters of fuel, and is expected for completion by 2006, Baihaki said.

He said Pertamina would give Pandan Wangi around $10 million for the amount the contractor had spent on the project.

Pertamina and Pandan Wangi had not signed final contract on the project.

Pertamina had also planned to build another fuel storage facility in Cikampek in West Java province.

The two facilities had been planned to add to the only storage facility in Plumpang in North Jakarta, which supplies fuel to Jakarta and surrounding areas. (godang)