JAKARTA. Pertamina (State Owned Oil and Gas Company) decided to delay crude oil purchase from Glencore Plc after finding wrong items delivered in this month.

Previously, Pertamina ordered crude oil from Glencore with the composition of sarir (super heavy) and mesla (light) amounted to 70% and 30%, respectively for Balikpapan refinery. However, the delivered items on contrary consist of 30% sarir and 70% mesla. Therefore, Balikpapan refinery cannot process the items, on the grounds that the refinery usually process sarir.

President Director of Pertamina Dwi Sutjipto assumed that something was wrong,and he said that Pertamina will probe this case.

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According to Reuters (15/7), Glencore won a bid to deliver 3.35 million barrel of crude oil to Pertamina. The wrong items found in 1.2 million barrel of the total delivered oil, whic came from Libya.

Dwi claimed that the case does not interrupt operations in Balikpapan refinery. “It is clear that we reject the wrong items”, he said. Fortunately, Pertamina has not paid yet the items. “We use letter of credit (L/C) for the payment so that the payment will be settled one month after the items are delivered”, Dwi said.

Director of Downstream Business Development at Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Setyorini Tri Hutami said that the ministry only provided recommendation to Pertamina about the items and composition of the items. In this case, the authority to change the items and composition of the items is on Pertamina, not on Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Pertamina declined to reveal the price differences resulted from the wrong items. Vice President Integrated Supply Chain of Pertamina Daniel S Purba said that the prices of sarir and mesla are confidential. Fahmi Radhi, former member of Reform Team For Oil and Gas Governance assumed element of intent on the case. “I am sure that there was collaboration between the trader and ISC Pertamina individual,” he said.

In this case, the wrong items that cannot be processed may be transferred to other refineries. The transfer itself needs an additional cost. (Translator: Muhammad Farid)