Kerry Adrianto's OTM Terminal Called Former Pertamina Official Has An Important Role

Corruption trial of crude oil management and refinery products at the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor)

JAKARTA - Former Vice President of Supply and Distribution of PT Pertamina (Persero) in 2011-2015, Alfian Nasution, said that the Oil Fuel Terminal (BBM) owned by PT Orbit Terminal Merak (OTM) had an important role.

This was conveyed by Alfian while testifying in a follow-up hearing on allegations of corruption in the management of Pertamina crude oil and refinery products at the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor), Monday, October 20. At that time, he was asked by one of the defendants, namely Muhammad Kerry Adrianto Riza, who alluded to the impact if the OTM terminal stopped.

"If tomorrow's OTM terminal stops operating, what will happen to national energy resilience?" Kerry asked in court.

"Of course it will be disrupted, because the capacity is 288 thousand kiloliters and it is quite large. Some areas will be affected," Alfian replied in front of the panel of judges.

Alfian then explained that Pertamina included OTM in the national fuel distribution scheme, including import distribution. Thus, the supply is believed to be disrupted and there are additional costs that must be incurred if the terminal is no longer operating.

"There will be additional costs because you have to divert supplies that have been using the Merak Terminal facility," he said.

Still in the trial, Alfian revealed that the impact of stopping OTM operations had been carried out by independent institutions.

"There is a surveyor Indonesia study that makes simulations if the terminal stops operating. There will be an increase in the number of ships by about five units," he said.

If converted, it will certainly be significant. From the study, it is around Rp. 150 billion per year. That's only from the cost of the ship," continued Alfian.

Meanwhile, Lingga Nugraha as Kerry's lawyer said the testimony of Alfian and the Director of Marketing and Commerce of PT Pertamina (Persero), Hanung Budya Huktyanta dismissed the prosecutor's indictment. The two statements confirm Pertamina's need for storage tanks ( storage) or fuel terminals (TBBM).

"In the context of Pertamina, this additional fuel accumulation has been needed since the beginning of 2012 and we can see from Hanung and Alfian's testimony that Pertamina needs even greater fuel hoarding of 400,000 kiloliters per year. And we can see it at RJPP and it is revealed in RKAP 2013-2014," said Lingga after the trial.

Lingga also said that the statements of the two witnesses also dismissed allegations of Riza Chalid's involvement and intervention in Pertamina's policy. These allegations should be considered as assumptions that are far from the facts of the trial.

"Talking about the intervention we asked, what kind of intervention? It turns out that Alfian's testimony does not have a real form of intervention," he said.

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

In the indictment, the prosecutor detailed a number of actions that were considered detrimental to the state. One of them is related to the cooperation in renting the Merak BBM Terminal between companies affiliated with Kerry, namely PT Jenggala Maritime and PT Orbit Terminal Merak (OTM).

The prosecutor said that the Merak BBM Terminal rental cooperation was carried out with PT Pertamina Patra Niaga even though at that time an additional fuel terminal had not been needed. The value of the loss from this cooperation is estimated at IDR 2.9 trillion.