Six firms get in principle authorization to distribute fuel oil in Indonesia

The government has given authorization in principle to five Indonesian companies and one foreign-owned firm to distribute fuel oil in Indonesia so as to cope with fuel oil shortages in the country, the chairman of downstream oil and gas authority BPH MIGAS, Tubagus Haryono, said Tuesday.

"They have obtained in principle authorization from the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources," Tubagus told reporters on the sidelines of his hearing with Commission VIII of the House of Representatives in charge of energy and mineral resources affairs.

The six firms are PT Sigma Rancang Perdana, PT Pandu Salaras, PT Elnusa Petrofin, PT Elnusa Harapan and Raven Sejahtera and PT Krida Petra Graha that is controlled by Shell, Tubagus said.

Tubagus said he was unsure when the government would issue the investors permits to start selling fuel oil in the country, saying that such licenses would be given to them only after the government issued regulation on BPH MIGAS.

He said further that the six companies could import fuel oil and sell it in Indonesia and that they also could build own oil refineries in the country so as to support their businesses.

Meanwhile, BPMIGAS' commission chairman Hanggoro T. Nugroho told Petromindo.Com that aside from the six investors, quite a number of companies also had made presentation before BPH MIGAS officials about their plan to distribute fuel oil in the country. He refused to mention their names, however.

State oil and gas firm Pertamina presently still acts as the sole fuel oil distributor in the country and will continue doing the work until 2005.

The current oil and gas law issued in 2002 stripped Pertamina of its preferential rights in upstream and downstream oil and gas sectors and left the firm operating as an ordinary limited liability company. (godang/leo)