Pertamina places order for six oil tankers from local shipyards

Alfian, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 08/09/2010 10:16 AM

State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina has placed orders for six tankers for about US$102 million to support its fuel distribution across the archipelago.

Pertamina opened the tender three months ago and announced the winners last week, Pertamina senior vice president of shipping Suhartoko told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

“All the winners are domestic companies because we want to encourage the domestic shipbuilding industry,” he said.

The domestic manufacturers who won the tender were PT PAL Indonesia, PT Dok dan Perkapalan Surabaya (DPS), PT Daya Radar Utama (DRU) and PT Dumas Tanjung Perak Shipyard.

PAL won a contract to build two 17,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) vessels worth around US$49 million, while DPS will build a 6,500 DWT vessel with an investment of around $14.5 million. DRU and Dumas won contracts to build 3,500 DWT vessels with investments of around $12.8 million for each vessel.

Suhartoko said Pertamina would also order another 3,500 DWT vessel at the same price, but that the company had not decided whether it would  award it to DRU or Dumas.

“The six projects require a total investment of around $102 million. We expect the appointed companies to complete construction within two years,” he said.

Pertamina currently operates 170 tankers and expects to get 47 more tankers by 2014. In January, the company said it planned to buy 12 tankers at a total cost of $333 million this year.

Suhartoko said Pertamina had awarded contracts to construct four tankers in April. Two of the tankers, with a capacity of 23,000 DWT each, will be built by Korea’s Hyundai. Two other tankers with a capacity of 3,500 DWT each will be constructed by a Chinese manufacturer.

“The four tankers will be used to transport LPG,” he said.

Suhartoko added that Pertamina expected to open more tenders in September to procure three more tankers. The first is for a 3,500 DWT LPG tanker likely to be built by a domestic company. The second is for a crude tanker with a capacity of between 85,000 DWT and 100,000 DWT. The third tender is for a very large gas carrier (VLGC) with a capacity of 85,000 DWT.

“The VLGC tender may be announced later as we are still undecided between owning or rent the vessel,” he said.

The new shipping law stipulates that by January 2010, all domestic shipments for 13 specified commodities, including crude oil, must be carried by national vessels. However, in January, Suhartoko said Pertamina had obtained permits to continue using 12 foreign-flagged vessels until March 31 this year.

He said Pertamina still operated one foreign-flagged vessel, a 23,000 DWT vessel transporting LPG from Jakarta to Surabaya. He said it would take time to convince the foreign shareholders to transfer their ownership to local parties. “We hope the vessel can be in domestic hands next week,” Suhartoko said.