Sank tanker off Cilacap inhibit crude supplies to Lomanis refinery

The sinking giant King Fisher crude oil tanker which has not been removed from Cilacap bay since April 1 has been inhibiting crude oil supplies from other tankers to state-owned Pertamina's Lomanis refinery as they could berth and unload their crude.

Because of the delay in the unloading of crude oil, Pertamina's Cilacap Refinery Unit has to pay a significant amount of fine to the owners of the tankers.

The head of Pertamina's Cilacap unit, Junaedy, and spokesman Husni Banser said on Tuesday that his company was required to pay a fine of $4,000 per hour. Meanwhile, for May alone, the amount of delays totaled 380 hours.

The Malta-registered 80,000 dead-weight-ton King Fisher tanker hit rocks near Nusakambangan island on April 1. The tanker carries about 600,000 barrels of crude oil, which will be delivered to Pertamina's Cilacap refinery.

The 250-meter long tanker suffered two holes in its body, causing about 4,000 barrels of its crude leaking to the sea and polluting the Cilacap coast, for more than 35 kilometers away. The tanker closes access to two of Pertamina's three crude island barges in Cilacap.

Junaedy said the only way to open access to Pertamina's crude island barges is by removing the tanker, and drag the tanker to another port which could repay its damages. But the problem, according to Junaedy, is that there is no single shipyard in Indonesia which could accommodate such a huge tanker, with length of more than 250 meters. (*)