Pertamina witnesses launching of new crude tanker

A crude tanker built by Chinese shipbuilder New Times Shipbuilding in Jinjiang, China for state owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina (Persero) was launched on Oct 15, 2015, Pertamina said in a statement on Friday.

Present at the ceremony were Pertamina?s Vice President Own Fleet Agus Pranoto, Strategic Advisor Hazairin and New Ship Project Coordinator I Ketut Sudana.

Launching in the shipping industry means launching a vessel into the sea for the first time, which is a milestone in the making of a vessel. It will be followed with a sea trial in order to see the performance of the vessel before being delivered to customers.

The new tanker called MT Sanggau has the capacity of 40,000 DWT. It is the second tanker that Pertamina have ordered from the Chinese shipbuilder. The first, called MT Gamkonora with a capacity 85,000 LTDW, was made back in 2012. Pertamina has also entrusted the Chinese firm to build two other crude tankers called MT Sanana and MT Serui each with the capacity of 40,000 DWT.

Agus said the building of the tankers is part of Pertamina?s program to own by itself 50 percent of the vessel tonnage used to deliver its products.

During the event, Agus expressed hope that New Times Shipbuilding will someday set up a joint venture with Pertamina?s shipyard to build vessels in Indonesia.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon