• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Indonesia State Oil Company Investigates Alleged Fuel Smuggling

Posted on: Monday, 12 September 2005, 06:00 CDT

Text of report by Indonesian news agency Antara website

Jakarta: PT Pertamina will soon supply the police with fresh evidence in their investigation into the smuggling of 6,000 tons of crude oil from the Lawe-Lawe oil terminal in East Kalimantan Province, the state oil and gas company's spokesman, M.Harun, said here Sunday (11 September).

"Tomorrow (Monday) morning, Pertamina's board of directors will submit fresh data and evidence to the police headquarters in Cilangkap here. We want the police to find and arrest the mastermind of the smuggling case," he said.

Harun said the perpetrators in committing their crime had pumped crude oil from the Lawe-Lawe oil terminal into a floating oil tank through Pertamina's marine oil pipeline and then siphoned the oil into oil tankers.

This crime, he said, was made possible by the involvement of a number of Pertamina employees, especially those he had been fired.

On Friday, police spokesman Insp-Gen Aryanto Boedihardjo said that 11 employees of the state oil and gas company had been questioned after they allegedly stole crude oil and pumping it into a Korean ship, MV Tioman, some time ago which was later apprehended by Indonesian KRI Multatuli when on patrol on 31 August, 2005.

"Based on the result of the investigation, the 11 Pertamina employees might be declared suspects," he said.

He said MV Tioman was carrying about 2,881 tons of crude oil allegedly stolen from a Pertamina Depot in East Kalimantan when it was apprehended by navy patrol.

Earlier, the police also arrested another 18 Pertamina employees for involvement in the fuel oil smuggling, bringing the number of those arrested in connection with the smuggling case to 29.

In the meantime, a day after disclosing the fuel oil smuggling that had inflicted a loss of 8.8 trillion rupiah to the state per year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono summoned PT Pertamina's board of directors and called on them to cooperate with the police and other security authorities.

At the meeting, the president asked for a clarification from the Pertamina directors on the smuggling case committed in some regions in which Pertamina officials had allegedly been involved. The regions included East Kalimantan where the smuggling had caused a loss of 52bn rupiah.

Pertamina's President Director Widya Purnama meanwhile said he had received the President's instruction to uphold the company's dignity as a state oil and gas enterprise.

On the fuel oil smuggling in East Kalimantan, Widya said, Pertamina had dismissed its employees involved in the smuggling. "Those involved in the oil smuggling in East Kalimantan had been fired," he said.

Widya said that in the fuel oil smuggling in Lawe-Lawe, East Kalimantan, the smugglers stole fuel oil from an oil tanker, Leo Marinir, which measured 95 metres in length and 15 metres in width.

"If they took away one millimetre, it is equal to 8,000 tons of fuel oil. This is difficult to detect and they stole light crude oil," Widya said.

Widya said Pertamina would seek the possible involvement of other company officials in the case.

Asked whether he would take the responsibility for the case and resign, Widya said he was ready to do that.

"You can blame Pertamina, but do not make Pertamina a scape goat. I am ready to resign if that is seen as a form of my accountability," he said.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

More News in this Category