Oil Governance Trial, Witness Says There is No Ban on Selling Oil Below the Minimum Price

JAKARTA - Donny Indrawan, former Manager of Industrial Sales at PT Pertamina Patra Niaga (PPN), confirmed that there was no rule in the internal PT Pertamina (Persero) that prohibited the sale of oil below the minimum price or bottom price.

This was stated by Donny when he was presented as a witness in the case of alleged corruption in the management of crude oil at PT Pertamina (Persero) at the Corruption Court in Jakarta, Thursday, December 18.

He gave testimony for Riva Siahaan, Maya Kusmaya, and Edward Corne who sat as defendants.

"To my knowledge, there is no (rule prohibiting the sale of oil below the bottom price, red)," said Donny when testifying.

He also said there was no provision that the solar sales contract must be above the bottom price.

According to Donny, the existing bottom price is issued specifically for buyer transactions that do not have a long contract or spot consumers. This provision is also not binding because it is only a reference and will be changed every two weeks.

"As I said earlier, we use the bottom price, not using the bottom price for contract consumers," he said.

Meanwhile, Key Account Mining PT Pertamina (Persero), Arindra Dita Primaloka said that sales using the bottom price provided an advantage because there was a margin. However, there is no obligation to follow if there is a long-term contract.

"Because the bottom price is only used for spot," he said.

Moreover, the sale of industrial diesel at prices below the bottom price does not cause losses for the company and is allowed. This statement was made by the Commercial and Trading Director of PT PPN, Mas'ud Hamid.

"What should not be done is that PT PPN sells industrial solar below the cost of production," he said.

As previously reported, the Attorney General's Prosecutor (JPU) charged Muhammad Kerry Adrianto Riza and two other defendants with causing state financial losses estimated at IDR 285.1 trillion.

The prosecutor said that the cooperation in renting the Merak Fuel Terminal was carried out with PT Pertamina Patra Niaga even though at that time an additional fuel terminal was not needed. The value of the losses from this cooperation is estimated to reach IDR 2.9 trillion.