Minister: No fuel price decrease

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said, said that the government will not reduce fuel prices although world oil prices continue to drop. Last Friday, the United States crude price drops to a level below US$40 per barrel for the first time in the past six years.

Sudirman said that the decision to maintain the current fuel prices was made to cover for PT Pertamina's losses. "However, we are currently calculating a new price for September [2015]," Sudirman said on Thursday, August 27, 2015.

Although the company had booked a net profit of US$570 million for the first semester of 2015 on August, Pertamina Director Dwi Soetjipto said that there is a potential losses of US$1 billion (Rp 12 trillion) due to the new method of fuel price determination applied by the government.

Therefore, Dwi hoped that the government would not decrease the price of Premium type fuel in order for Pertamina to cover the potential losses. "[That] or we will negotiate dividends with the government," Dwi added.

Price for the West Texas Intermediate for October shipment experienced an 87 cent decrease to a level of US$40.45 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Meanwhile, price for the Brent North Sea for October shipment was recorded at US$45.46, US$1.16 since the closing of Thursday's trading session. The WTI had even reached its lowest price of US$39.86 since February 2009.

TRI ARTINING PUTRI