Govt To Announce New Fuel Oil Price

Jakarta, Dec 30 (Antara) - Coordinating minister for economic affairs Sofyan Djalil said here on Tuesday that the government will introduce a new oil policy on Wednesday in anticipation of a reduction in global oil prices. "Although we have held a meeting with the minister of finance and the minister of energy and mineral resources, we have yet to report the outcome of the meeting to the President. Hopefully, the new policy can be announced tomorrow morning," he said. He confirmed the policy will be in line with world oil price developments and include adjustments in the price of subsidized oil as well as the incorporation of subsidy scheme in the revised 2015 budget. "In principle, it will be in line with the world oil price development. Certainly there will be adjustments to ensure fairness even as various factors will be taken into account, because if prices go up, people will have to sacrifice more," he noted. Sofyan remarked that the announcement will not be made by President Joko Widodo but by minister of energy Sudirman Said. State-owned oil company Pertamina`s president director Dwi Soetjipto, meanwhile, said he will implement whatever the government will decide, including scrapping RON 88 gasoline. "We will wait for the government`s policy and Pertamina is ready to carry it out as we are also looking for the best energy management way," he added. He revealed that Pertamina will upgrade its refineries to increase the production of RON 92 gasoline, although the process of shifting from "premium" (RON 88) to "pertamax" (RON 92) gasoline will take two years. "The current capacity of our refineries is between 40 and 50 percent of the national requirement. After it is upgraded, we hope the capacity will reach 80 percent," he pointed out. He added that the capacity of Pertaimina`s refineries to produce RON 88 gasoline reached 5.2 thousand barrels per day while for RON 92, the capacity reached only 1.5 thousand barrels per day.