SKK Migas goes ahead with crude tender
Tuesday, August 20 2013 - 07:53 AM WIB
Upstream authority SKK Migas is going ahead with the tender of crude oil owned by the government for this month, but Kernel Oil Pte. Ltd. has been disqualified from participating in the tender.
Widyawan Prawiraatmadja, Commercial Control Deputy at SKK Migas, said there are between 400 and 500 barrels of crude oil owned by the government that have to be sold this month. Otherwise, the crude in the tanks will overflow.
Widyawan thus denied previous media reports which quoted SKK Migas?s spokesman Elan Biantoro as saying that the tender has been suspended in order to reevaluate the tender process and to investigate whether Kernel Oil is involved in the tender. An executive of Kernel, a Singaporean oil trading firm, has been arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on charges of bribing SKK Migas? now-suspended Chairman Rudi Rubiandini.
According to Widyawan, the tender was kicked off on Aug. 13 with letters of invitation into the tender sent to a total of 35 companies, including Kernel. On the following day, Rudi, according to KPK, was caught red-handed receiving bribes from an executive of Kernel through an intermediary.
On Friday (Aug. 16, 2013), two days after the arrest of Rudi and the Kernel executive, SKK Migas sent a letter to inform Kernel that if the company submitted its bid, it would be disqualified. As a result, the firm did not submit its bid, according to Widyawan.?
Widyawan said there were seven companies which have submitted bids for the contract to sell the government-owned crude. SKK Migas has shortlisted them into four and will award the contract to the firm which offers the best premium for the crude.
Editing by Johannes Simbolon