TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A number of Pertamina's refineries had to cease operations over the past two months. Since December last year, the state-owned oil company recorded at least 10 breakdowns, which may incur a loss of Rp1 trillion.
A number of sources and industry practitioners made a calculation for how much money Pertamina would lose for not being able to produce oil while paying for operating costs. "We still need to pay our employees," an insider's source told Tempo on Monday, January 23.
The refinery that recorded the most breakdowns is the Balikpapan Refinery in East Kalimantan, with three shutdowns in the course of two months.
On December 2 last year, the refinery went on a total shut-down after a generator broke down. The shutdown affected the operation of other units including crude oil refiners, crude distillation, and hydrocracking. The refinery was back on after three weeks and had a number of breakdowns.
On January 15, the Balikpapan refinery went through another shutdown after a generator broke down because of a steam pipe leak. All of its units started working normally again last week on January 21.
Pertamina also recorded a number of damage-related breakdowns in the Cilacap (Central Java) and Dumai (Riau) refineries.
The Cilacap and Balikpapan refineries are Indonesia's first and second biggest suppliers of oil. the two facilities refine 260,000 bpd of crude oil, with Solar diesel being one of their main outputs.
Pertamina's processing director Toharso rejected claims that the potential loss reaches trillions. He said the company will only lose profits, "Refineries' margin is not big," he told Tempo.
Pertamina is still looking into the problem. Commissioner Tanri Abeng said the company will call its directors today, January 24, and ask them to explain what happened.
ROBBY IRFANY | RETNO SULISTYOWATI
