Domestic fuel consumption rises by 15%

Domestic fuel consumption has increased by 15 percent for this month, while supplies to Pontianak, West Sumatra, were disrupted because of bad weather resulting in fuel scarcity in that town.

Pertamina's spokesman Toto Suprapto said that eight of its fuel storage units recorded increases in fuel consumption, possibly driven by the government's plan to increase fuel prices starting in October.

To anticipate further increase in fuel consumption prior to the increase in fuel prices, Pertamina had secured import commitments from a number of neighboring countries, mainly Singapore and Malaysia, totaling 12 million barrels.

Pertamina's director for fuel storage and domestic marketing, Harry Purnomo, said that 6 million barrels of fuels would have arrived in Indonesia in August, and the remaining 6 million barrels would be shipped in September.

Harry said the funding for the importaiton of the 12 million barrels that would need a foreign exchange of US$1.2 billion, would be provided by the government.

Meanwhile, Toto said that because of the increasing fuel demand, Pertamina's storage units focus on their own areas and could not supply additional fuels to Pontianak that was struck with fuel scarcity.

"So, the fuel scarcity in Pontianak is not caused only by the explosion in the Balikpapan refinery plant, but also because of the delay of fuel supplies due to bad weather," he said.

The head of Pertamina's Pontianak storage unit, Muhammad Chabib, said the fuel tanker supplying fuels to Pontianak should have been arrived a few days ago. But because of the bad weather, the tanker was late.

Both Muhammad Chabib and Toto promised that fuel supplies for Pontianak would return to normal at the end of this week as the tanker carrying fuels to this town would have reached the town by then. (*)