Fuel Oil Use to be Limited Soon
Wednesday, 06 February, 2008 | 16:24 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government will soon limit the use of kerosene, “Premium” petrol and diesel oil by using control cards.

This was the result of a meeting led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the vice presidential office, on Tuesday (5/2).

Attended the meeting were Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, State Minister for State-owned Enterprises Sofyan Djalil, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu, Industry Minister Fahmi Idris, Pertamina’s Managing Director Ari Soemarno, Head of the Upstream Oil & Natural Gas Regulatory Body (BPH Migas) Tubagus Haryono and PLN (State Electricity Company) Managing Director Eddie Widiono.

According to Purnomo, the fuel oil limitation is a consequence of the output of the meeting which decided that fuel oil and electricity subsidy budgets be cut by Rp10 trillion each.

Fund saving from the subsidy reductions will be used for basic food prices stabilization.

In addition to savings, he said, there is a possibility of additional funds from oil & gas revenues amounting to Rp5 trillion.

“There is also the potential of more from the macro assumptions changes for crude oil to be US$80 per barrel and production to be 910,000 barrels,” he said.

BPH Migas Head Tubagus Haryono said the fuel oil subsidy savings would be carried out for “Premium”petrol, kerosene and diesel oil.

“Control cards will be utilized to limit the use in line with needs.”

He went on to say that for kerosene, control cards will start to be used in April in 68 regencies in Java as a model.

The regencies are those which have not yet been touched by the kerosene-to-gas conversion program.

For “Premium” petrol and diesel oil consumers, said Tubagus, the limitation will be in line with the quota set on the control cards.

“Technically it will be finalized. The minimum target is Rp10 trillion of savings,” he said.

Pertamina’s Managing Director Ari Soemarno said the savings would be carried out by accelerating the kerosene-to-LPG conversion program from 12.5 million to 15 million cylinders by 2008.

“The domestic producers are ready. We’re optimizing 12 out of 20 producers,” he said.

ANTON APRIANTO | ALI