The Attorney General’s Office has identified seven suspects in a corruption case involving the management of crude oil and refinery products at Pertamina during the 2018-2023 period, resulting in state losses amounting to hundreds of trillions of rupiah.
Among the suspects are several Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Vice Presidents (VPs) in Pertamina’s subsidiaries, and private companies.
Those involved and named as suspects include the CEO of PT Pertamina Patra Niaga, the Director of Feedstock and Product Optimization at PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional, the CEO of PT Pertamina International Shipping, the VP of Feedstock Management at PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional, and several CEOs and commissioners of private companies.
Dr. Fahmy Radhi, an energy economics expert from Universitas Gadjah Mada, revealed that the method used to siphon off state funds in this case is similar to the modus operandi of previous oil and gas mafia schemes.
They marked up the import of crude oil and fuel and upgraded the blending of fuel from Pertalite (RON 90) to Pertamax (RON 92).
In practice, domestically produced crude oil was rejected for processing at Pertamina’s refineries, as its specifications did not meet Pertamina’s refinery requirements.
As a result, crude oil had to be imported for domestic processing.
“Under the pretext that the refinery’s capacity is insufficient, fuel still needs to be imported in large quantities. The price of imported crude oil and fuel was increased, resulting in state losses as the government had to pay higher import costs. A markup was also applied to the shipping contracts, with an additional illegal cost of 13-15 percent,” he explained at UGM Campus Monday (Mar. 3).
According to Dr. Radhi, this corruption not only drained state funds but also harmed the public as fuel consumers. In reality, when people buy fuel, they do not receive the quality they should.
“They pay the price of Pertamax but receive Pertalite, which is much cheaper,” he explained.
To prevent this looting from happening again, Dr. Radhi said, law enforcement authorities must impose the harshest penalties on the suspects.
Pertamina must also conduct a massive operation to cleanse the oil and gas mafia still entrenched within the company.
President Prabowo is expected to lead the fight against the Oil and Gas Mafia.
“Without the President’s active role, don’t expect the powerful Oil and Gas Mafia to be eradicated, and it’s impossible for the looting of state funds to stop,” he concluded.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Post-editor: Afifudin Baliya
Illustration: Freepik.com