Pertamina to call tender for 31 million lpg cylinders

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina will call another tender for the production of about 31 million LPG cylinders worth Rp4.03 trillion, a spokesman said. 

"The tender will be held to meet the need for 46 million LPG cylinders for the 2009 kerosene-to-LPG conversion program," deputy to the marketing and commercial director of Pertamina, Hanung Budya said here on Wednesday. 

He said that 15 million of the 46 million cylinders had been put out to tender this month. Pertamina had named 30 companies as winners. The 15 million LPG tubes will soon be distributed to the people within the January - March 2009 period. 

At present, production capacity at home is about 46 million cylinders, which consist of 36 million by private companies and 10 million by state firms. 

Pertamina has set a target to cover at least 23.044 million families in its kerosene-to-LPG conversion program in 2009, with a subsidy need of Rp7.853 trillion.