Disappearing Act

THE plan by state-run oil and gas company Pertamina to liquidate its subsidiary, Pertamina Energy Trading Limited (Petral), is clearly not the solution or a guarantee that the mafia behind fuel imports will disappear. The main issue is not whether Petral is dissolved or not. Far more important is how to establish an increasingly efficient and transparent fuel supply mechanism. This would make it easier to carry out a transparent audit if anything strange or suspicious were found in the supply process.

The recommendation issued by the Oil and Gas Management Reform Team chaired by Faisal Basri did not simply ask Pertamina to close down its Singapore-based subsidiary. There is nothing wrong with an oil company like Pertamina owning a company like Petral in order to trade oil on the international market. But allowing Petral to become the sole player, and to play such a central role in importing fuel throughout the country, has proven to be a strategy that is rife with corruption.