TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned gas and oil firm Pertamina Chief Commissioner, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok, was glad that the cost of one of his company’s projects in Tuban, East Java, could be saved up to US$ 6 billion or Rp84 trillion with an assuming rate of Rp14,000 per US Dollar.

“I am so happy,” he said at the ninth Anniversary of the Indonesian Motivation Islamic Boarding School of the Nahdlatul Ulama on Sunday, February 28, 2021.

He mentioned that the capital expenditure for the project initially reached US$18 billion, and thus he asked for recalculation. As a result, the cost had shrunk to more than US$11 billion.

“This is extraordinary. We can do it, if we are careful and review it (the budget) one by one,” said the former Jakarta governor.

Basuki also praised Pertamina President Director Nicke Widyawati for accommodating input submitted by the commissioner board. “I am lucky that [the President Director] is very cooperative,” he added.

However, Ahok stopped short of revealing details of the project. In Tuban, the company has a Grass Root Refinery (GRR) project under its sub-holding refining and petrochemical subsidiary PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional.

Recently, several villagers in the region became billionaires after receiving tens of billions as compensation money from the land acquisition for the project.

Tempo was trying to reach Pertamina's Senior Vice President for Corporate Communication and Investor Relations, Agus Suprijanto, about the savings, yet no response has been made yet.

Meanwhile, Secretary of PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional, Ifki Sukarya, was reluctant to comment further. “It's being confirmed,” he said shortly on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, when asked about the project cost savings mentioned by Ahok.

Read: Tuban Villagers Receive IDR 1.8T from Land Sales for Pertamina Refinery

FAJAR PEBRIANTO