Hardship on LPG Conversion

VIVAnews - State oil company Pertamina acknowledged that the task of converting kerosene to gas is getting more difficult. The reason for this is that the number of the distributed LPG has considerably increased.

"Therefore we will provide more supporting facilities," said Pertamina Director of Marketing and Trading, Achmad Faisal, during a hearing with Energy Commission at the House of Representatives (DPR), on Tuesday, Feb 10.

Faisal said that this year the state oil company must convert kerosene to gas for 18 million families. However, lately the figure increases to 23 million families. In addition, Pertamina must also cover last year's shortage of five million LPG containers.

In order to support the conversion program, he went on to say that Pertamina will increase the capacity of LPG Filling Plant in Tanjung Priok, Jakarta, by 1,000 tons, adding to the existing capacity of 8,000 tons. "It is targeted that the additional capacity will be completed by the end of the year," said Faisal.

Pertamina will also amplify the capacity of LPG Filling Plant in Surabaya with 500 tons. Today, in Semarang, Central Java, as many as 20.4 million of LPG containers have been distributed, with refilled LPG of around 718 thousand metric tons. "The withdrawn kerosene in Semarang reaches 2.66 million kiloliters." If it works, Faisal predicted that there will no longer be any subsidized kerosene in Java by 2009.

Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono