MEDIA reports about a management reshuffle in Pertamina, just makes Ari Hernanto Soemarno, 60, laugh out loud. Having worked three decades at the state-owned oil company, he knows well how the system works. He is also aware that the board of directors are unlikely to change their mind so easily about the top job that is being contested by so many people.

That is probably why Ari Soemarno, Pertamina’s current Chief Executive Officer, is not w