Zatapi: Strange Brew

ZATAPI is becoming notorious. The imported crude oil product from Gold Manor has now resulted in Pertamina’s CEO coming under attack from all side. Aside from the company’s board of commissioners, it has also attracted the attention of the Attorney General’s Office and House of Representatives, who have caught wind of irregularities behind the importation of Zatapi crude oil.

A pile of documents indicates that a series of import tender procedures were violated. A Tempo investigation from Cilacap to Singapore has untangled the links between the oil “merchants” behind the company based in the British Virgin Islands. The importation of “black gold” it seems, remains an appealing field for the pursuit of dirty money.

March 25, 2008

THERE were no signs of the oil tanker Four Springs at the wharf. Yet the ship operating under an Italian flag was reported to have tied up at the Cilacap oil port in Central Java the day before, on February 12. When asked, two Pertamina Tongkang Cilacap security personnel were unable to provide any information, asking Tempo instead to leave an ID card.

The efforts of this minor “investigation” only began to bear fruit when from the lips of a

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