Pertamina will supply cheap fuel to PLN

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina will supply cheaper type of diesel oil to state owned oil electricity company PLN beginning May, this year to help the power utility company reduce it operating costs, Neraca daily reported on Friday.

Achmad Faisal, the head of the fuel division of Pertamina, said in Jakarta on Thursday that the cheaper diesel oil or more commonly called marine fuel oil (MFO) would be priced only at about Rp 3,380 per liter (US$=Rp.9,300) , or about 35 percent cheaper than that of the high speed diesel oil currently used by PLN.

He, however, said that PLN had not decided the volume of the MFO it planned to buy from Pertamina. "We don't know yet the volume of MFO to be supplied to PLN because not all of PLN's power plants can use the MFO," he added.

At present, Pertamina has been required to supply about 9 million kiloliters of fuel to PLN this year, or about the same volume of fuel supplied to the power utility company in 2005. (*)