Faisal Basri: Premium Costs More Expensive than Pertamax
21 December 2014 21:20 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Oil and Gas Governance Reform Team, led by Faisal Basri, provided the government with a recommendation to put RON 88 fuel imports to an end. According to Faisal Basri, the procurement of the locally known as Premium fuel has not been transparent so that public are not able to compare the domestic fuel price with that in international market.
“We have provided the recommendation to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on Friday,” Oil and Gas Governance Reform Team chief Faisal Basri said in a press conference at the Energy Ministry office on Sunday, December 21, 2014.
Faisal explained that the government has to spend more budgets to procure RON 88 because such a product does no longer exist in the market. Therefore, Pertamina had to belnd Naphtha and fuel with higher quality fuel to get RON 88.
According to Faisal, the move to stop RON 88 imports would be a solution to prevent cartel practices. Indonesia have been the only RON 88 buyer, which unfortunately has no power to decide the price in the market.
Faisal added the RON 88 imports stoppage would also encourage Pertamina to improve its refineries. According to Faisal, Pertamina is now ready to upgrade its refineries to produce RON 92 fuel.
AYU PRIMA SANDI
