Government Plans to Move Petral's Operation Center to Indonesia

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The government is planning to move the operation center of Pertamina Energy Trading Ltd. (Petral), a subsidiary of state-owned oil company PT Pertamina, from Singapore to Indonesia.

         State Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno said at a press conference here on Friday that her office was thoroughly studying Petral's establishment.

         "The best alternative is to move the company to Indonesia. However, this cannot be done all at once," she stated at the conference, which was also attended by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said and PT Pertamina's newly-appointed president director Dwi Soetjipto.

         Rini said the government wished to make the Pertamina's system of procurement from upstream to downstream, including through Petral, transparent.

         "This is indeed a difficult task for the new board of directors, but we believe, in the future, Pertamina will go global and become more efficient," she noted.

         She explained that Petral and the procurement system are the first tasks that Pertamina's new board of directors will have to complete within three months.

         She added that Pertamina's new board of directors will work closely with the Oil and Gas Management Reform Committee led by economist Faisal Basri.

         Minister Sudirman remarked that President Joko Widodo is committed to reforming the oil and gas sector's management, including that of Petral.

         "The committee is currently studying Petral's role, performance, business, and leadership. It often happens that a company does not run well despite its good system, because its leadership is not good enough," he pointed out.

         He emphasized that in the near future, the committee will meet with the new board of directors of Pertamina and visit Petral's office in Singapore.

         After that the company will present its recommendations to the government with regard to Petral's future.

         "A decision regarding Petral will be made in the future. But we will do it carefully. Any decision will be made based on facts and will not be done carelessly," he assured.

         Dwi Soetjipto promised to make the procurement system, including the one in Petral, more transparent and increase its efficiency.

         The other priority is to make Pertamina the spearhead of energy sovereignty and increase its efficiency and productivity, he added.

         Besides Dwi Soetjipto, the government has named Ahmad Bambang, Yenny Andayani, and Arif Budiman as Pertamina's new directors. It also  honorably discharged all former directors. (WDY)