"With more ships, cost will be made more efficient to make Pertamina oil price more competitive," the company`s commercial and development vice president Subagjo Hari Moeljanto said at a press conference here on Wednesday.
Pertamina would procure seven 3,500 DWT tankers, two 4,000 DWT LBO small tankers, seven 17,500 DWT GP tankers, three 30,000 DWT MT tankers, two 85,000 DWT Aframax tankers, one 84,000 DWT VLGC tankers and one 260,000 DWT VLCC tankers.
Subagjo said with the increasing number of tankers Pertamina would be able to reduce total operational cost at Rp9 trillion by Rp800 billion.
"Total transportation cost is Pertamina`s bet for global competition in the oil and gas downstream sector. We are also committed to boosting the growth of ship building industries," he added.
He said Pertamina has added an Aframax tanker with a capacity of 85,000 DWT named Gamkonora to its fleet.
"The Gamkonora tanker has been built by China Newtimes Shipbuilding since 2010. The ship is expected to strengthen the domestic crude transportation fleet and Pertamina has invested US$52.8 million for it," he said.
Pertamina now owns 53 ships out of 187 ships it has operated so far. National shipbuilding industries are expected to contribute much to oil and gas industry in the country, he said.
(KR-IAZ/H-YH/S012)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
