TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Susilo Siswoutomo, said oil company Pertamina and power company PLN had discussed about their disagreement over the price of subsidized diesel fuel, known as Solar, traded between the two state companies. Susilo said that Pertamina will keep supplying fuel for PLN's power plants, especially to areas that rely on diesel power plants.

"Claims for the payment will be considered, and the government will help PLN," Susilo said in his office, yesterday.

PLN president director Nur Pamudji believes this issue will soon be resolved. He said that technical teams from PLN and Pertamina have met, and they are planning to hold a joint meeting with the Director-General of Budget, Ministry of Finance.

"Hopefully by next week there is a new agreement," he said.

Pertamina earlier said that it would stop supplying subsidized diesel fuel to PLN's power plants, because the latter have not paid accordingly to the agreed price, which was recommended by the Board of Finance and Development (BPKP).

The dispute began when PLN refused to agree on a new Solar diesel price for last year's contract. The agreement stipulates that both SOEs have a business-based relationship, thus Pertamina asked PLN to buy the Solar diesel in accordance with market prices. Upon the request, PLN asked for a recalculation, seeking BPKP's advice. But, BPKP's recommendation to raise the Solar diesel price by 112 to 117 percent of the MOPS (Mean of Plats Singapore) was ignored by PLN.

Pertamina claimed to have protested though written letters many times without ever receiving a response from PLN. Finally, Pertamina decided to use 50 percent of last year's volume for the old contract's price formula, a decision based on one of the contract clauses. Unfortunately, the clause—applied until June 24, 2014—did not provide any profits to Pertamina. Throughout the first semester of the year, Pertamina even lost US$45 million.

Hanung said that if PLN remains silent about the issue Pertamina will sell its Solar diesel to PLN's solar power plants using an economical price. "If not, we'll let PLN seek other suppliers," he said.

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan sadi he will summon the directors of both SOEs Monday next week, but he insisted that he would not interfere too far. "I'm not going to take sides," he said.

RAYMUNDUS RIKANG | AYU PRIMA SANDI | FAIZ Nashrillah