Pertamina will only import Premium gasoline this year

State-owned and oil and gas company PT Pertamina will only import Premium gasoline this year while imports of other fuel products such as diesel and kerosene will be stopped as production from the company?s refineries are more than enough to meet the demand.

Speaking during a hearing with the House of Representatives on Thursday, Pertamina?s director for marketing and commerce Achmad Faisal said that the company would need to import about 55.5 million barrels of Premium gasoline because the local refineries would be able only to produce about 68.3 million barrels to meet the total demand which was projected to reach Rp 123.8 million barrels.

"We need to import 55.5 million barrels to fill the gap in the local production,? Faisal said.

As for diesel and kerosene, Pertamina said it would halt their imports because the existing stocks and the additional supply from the company?s refineries would be more than enough to meet the demand.

Pertamina said earlier that it would export 300,000 and 400,000 barrels of diesel in the middle of this month because the company had been in excess of diesel stocks due to the decline in the demand from businesses amid a slowdown in the activities of the local industrial sector.

Faisal said the company had also halted kerosene imports thanks to the projected decline in the demand for subsidized kerosene by about 50 percent this year to 5.8 million kiloliters from more than 10 kiloliters last year as the result of the success of government?s kerosene-to-LPG conversion program.

Pertamina will do some modifications on its refineries so that the units used to produce kerosene can produce diesel.

The national demand for diesel is projected to reach 73.5 million barrels this year, while local refineries stand at 99.4 million barrels.(Bernard)