THE notion of Pertamina joining the elite group of world-class oil companies is still far from reality. The confusion over the Zatapi crude oil import tender, which reportedly involves collusion between the winner of the tender and people inside Pertamina, shows the state-owned oil company is fraught with problems.

Pertamina cannot be compared to the world's top oil companies such as ExxonMobil or Royal Dutch Shell, whose profits last year were aro