Indonesia: Retailers Association Calls For Petronas & AKR Removel From Fuel Retail
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Friday, 19 February 2010 |
The association of fuel station owners Hiswana Migas is asking
lawmakers to remove the government’s permits to allow PT Petronas Niaga
Indonesia and PT AKR Corporindo (AKR) to distribute subsidized fuels,
arguing that the presence of the two firms would damage the existing
distributors.
Hiswana Migas is representing owners of 4,509 fuel service stations and
588 marine service stations (serving the fishing industry).
Before the government allowed Petronas Niaga Indonesia into the
subsidized fuel distribution market, Hiswana Migas had been the only
non state player distributing the fuels on behalf of the state
oil company PT Pertamina.
“Sales volume in most of the existing stations has so far always been
low or lower than 10,000 kiloliters. Thus, the appointment of the two
private companies as the subsidized fuels distributors will further
lower the sales volume,” Hiswana Migas’s chairman Mohammad Nur Adib
told lawmakers from the House of Representatives Commission VII
overseeing energy and mineral resources during a hearing last
week.
Adib further asked the lawmakers to amend the law on the liberalisation
of the petroleum downstream business. “We suggest the law should be
amended in a bid to protect the national interest,” he said. Since
deregulation change was initiated in2001, several international oil
companies have established fuel servcie stations in Indonesia’s major
cities. The new fuel retailers were only allowed to sell non-subsidized
fuels. But, starting from this year, Petronas Niaga Indonesia and AKR
have been selected by downstream oil and gas regulator BPHMigas
to be involved in the distribution of subsidized fuels, which has long
been monopolized by Pertamina.
However Petronas and AKR have been very restricted in the distribution of subsidised fuels by volume and geographical regions.
AKR is only allowed to distribute 56,500 kiloliters of subsidized
diesel per year in Deli Serdang, Medan, Central Lampung, South Lampung,
East Lampung, North Lampung, Bandar Lampung, Banjar Masin, and
Pontianak. Petronas is only allowed to distribute 20,440
kiloliters of subsidized Premium gasoline per year in four fuel
stations in Medan, North Sumatra.
PetrolWorld 020210
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