Pertamina Saves $208m in 2015 After Ditching Petral
Jakarta. State-owned energy firm Pertamina managed to save $208 million last year from buying oil at a cheaper price directly from global markets after cutting out its notorious trading unit Pertamina Energy Trading, the company said in a statement on Monday.
The unit, known as Petral, previously handled nearly all of Pertamina’s purchases of foreign crude and oil products. But it has been long suspected to be laden with vested interests that take profit from the unit's virtual monopoly.
An independent audit completed last November showed that since 2012, Petral had favored certain companies to supply oil to Pertamina, leaked classified pricing information to bidders, and allowed unnamed “third parties” to manipulate the bidding process.
Pertamina halted Petral's operations in May last year. Since then, Pertamina has been buying crude oil and oil fuel directly from global markets through its integrated supply chain mechanism.
It plans to completely dissolve Petral by April.
"We managed to cut the supply chain of imported crude oil and oil fuel," Wianda Pusponegoro, Pertamina's vice president for corporate communication, said in the statement.
Pertamina also reviewed previous oil fuel purchasing contracts in order to get the best price for the company, Wianda said.
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