TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Businesses in the oil and gas sector are eyeing opportunities to build gas stations that sell non-subsidized fuel. Such gas stations are considered to be more profitable. “The profit margin is bigger and the investment required to build [the stations] is not too costly,” Eri Purnomo Hadi, chairman of the National Entrepreneurs Association of Oil and Gas, told Tempo on Monday. The higher profits are gained from a bigger profit margin for non-subsidized fuel. Pertamina has offered a maximum margin of Rp500 per liter for Pertamax fuel. However, the margin for subsidized Premium fuel is only Rp180 per liter. Eri calculated that in order to gain an equal profit such as Rp5 million for instance, the sale of Premium fuel must be increased to 30,000 liters. “Pertamax fuel only need to reach a third of that [the sales figure],” Eri added. The investment needed to build the special gas stations is less expensive to build. Converting conventional gas stations, including cleaning dispensers and storage tanks, is estimated to cost tens of millions of rupiah. M. ANDI PERDANA