Winners of 2009 subsidized fuel tender to be announced in December

BPH Migas, the downstream oil and gas regulatory body, expects to announce the winners of the tender for the distribution and sales of subsidized fuels for next year in the country on Dec. 9, 2008.

Tubagus Haryono, the head of BPH Migas, said in Jakarta on Monday that the agency was still evaluating the bids based on both technical and financial criteria set in the tender requirements.

?The technical criteria contributes 60 percent of the evaluation, while the commercial aspect contributes 40 percent,? he said.

Tubagus said that the agency had short-listed eight companies to take part in the tender. They were selected from 27 companies which took part in the prequalification process, including major fuel distributors PT Pertamina, PT Shell Indonesia, PT Petronas Niaga Indonesia, PT AKR Corporation, PT Patra Niaga, PT Petrobas Indonesia, PT Bumi Asri Prima Pratama and PT Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indonesia (TPPI)

He said that the financial criteria covered several aspects including the distribution and profit margin as well as term of payment, financial guarantee, operational reserves and network expansion plan.

The technical criteria, meanwhile, covered such aspects as the number of fuel truck tankers, storages and filling stations, he added. In addition, the bidders should have distribution networks in at least two distribution areas.

The government allocates 36.85 million kiloliters of subsidized fuels in the 2009 state budget, comprising of 19.44 million kiloliters of Premium fuel, 5.8 million kiloliters of kerosene, and 11.61 million kiloliters of diesel oil. The government offers the fee and cost reimbursement, better known as "alpha" for 2009 at 8 percent (godang)