Netray Monitoring: Netizens Are Noisy About Pertalite's Replacement Plan With Pertamax Green 92

Pertamina's plan to remove Pertalite fuel and replace it with Pertamax Green 92 has made Indonesian netizens noisy. (Between)

JAKARTA The news related to the plan to replace Pertalite with Pertamax Green 92 was widely discussed by netizens over the past week. Fuel with high octane is considered more efficient for vehicles because the fuel burning is slower.

This was revealed by the President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero) Nicke Widyawati who said he would remove Pertalite and replace it with Pertamax Green 92 starting next year.

"Our subsidized BBM increases from RON 90 to RON 92, because the rules of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) octane number that can be sold in Indonesia are at least 91," Nicke said in a Hearing Meeting (RDP) with Commission VII DPR RI, last Wednesday, August 30.

Although it is claimed to be more economical, the discourse on removing Pertalite with Pertamax Green 92 has drawn controversy. Moreover, Pertalite is a type of fuel that is in great demand mainly by the lower middle class. This is evident from the distribution of Pertalite fuel throughout the first half of 2023 which reached 14.8 million kiloliters or has taken a portion of 45.4% of the total quota this year.

The discourse on removing Pertalite has also become a discussion on social media andNetray is trying to observe various mass media reports. By using the keyword "pertalite&&&pertamax green" found 249 articles from 79 media published this topic during the period August 30 to September 6, 2023.

As well as mass media reports, Netray also monitors via the YouTube video channel as well as to find out about netizens' comments regarding this proposal. With the keywords pertalite &&pertamax green and pertalite &&deleted Netray, 155 video uploads appeared during the monitoring period. From this upload, netizens watched it as many as 361.3 thousand times and produced 2.813 comments which were dominated by negative comments as many as 1,716.

'Secretly, premium is gone... Now the trick is to get rid of Pertalite!!! This is Pertamina's way of raising fuel prices!!!!! wrote Aat Supriawijaya's account.

The discourse on removing Pertalite is indeed quite interesting for the public. Moreover, previously, Premium fuel with an octane value or Research Octane Number (RON) 88 had not officially been circulating since January 1, 2023. Now it is Pertalite fuel's turn with RON 90 which is planned to disappear on the market.

Meanwhile, Pertamax, which is currently circulating on the market, will also change its name to Pertamax Green 92. Pertamax Green itself is Pertalite with 8 percent ethanol. In addition, Pertamina plans to only sell three fuel products, namely Pertamax Green 92, Pertamax Green 95 and Pertamax Turbo.

Pertamina has reasons related to the plan to remove Pertalite. This policy is in line with the government's program to reduce air pollution by using bioenergetic-based fuels.

Understandably, Indonesia is battling air pollution which is increasingly concerning day by day. Vehicles are claimed to be the biggest contributor to pollution, with a value of 44%, according to the Minister of Environment and Public Relations (LHK) Siti Nurbaya.

"Reconfirmed the figures seen as sources of pollution or decreased Jabodetabek air quality, namely 44% of vehicles, 34% of PLTU, the rest are others, including from households, burning, and others," Siti said in a press conference, broadcast on YouTube by the Presidential Secretariat, Monday (28/8/2023).

However, although it was only in the form of ideas, the plan to remove Pertalite and replace it with Pertamax Green 92 had already encountered obstacles. This was revealed by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin, who said that the idea could not be carried out next year because it was still constrained by raw materials.

According to Arifin, Indonesia has not produced ethanol or sugar cane raw materials to produce Pertamax Green. Ethanol production has just entered the trial stage by relying on sugarcane supply in East Java.

Reported by the Pertamina page, ethanol is a chemical compound known as ethyl alcohol or alcohol. This compound is one of the types of alcohol commonly used in everyday life.

Meanwhile, Energy Observer at Padjadjaran University (Unpad), Yayan Satyakti is pessimistic about the readiness of the Indonesian market to welcome Pertamax Green. In addition to the inadequate supply of sugar cane, the roadmap for bioethanol fuel in Indonesia is still not strong. According to Yayan, it took around 8-10 years for Indonesia to prepare for this.

And, for approximately a decade, it should be able to be used to work on massive infrastructure development with a 100 percent domestic component level (TKDN). Because if you have to import raw materials, in the end the people will also be merged.

"I think the strategy of diverting fuel fossil imports to bioethanol is not cheap. Our market is still not ready. This is just a blunder, if forced, then the political realm will be manned again," said Yayan.

Energy Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) analyst Putra Adhiguna asked the government to be careful in creating programs with environmental frills. According to him, the green program behind any surge in energy prices can form negative sentiment towards the future transition. Putra said there are two things that the government should pay attention to if it wants to realize the transition program to Pertamax Green 92.

The first is about the clarity of prices and who will bear it if there is a spike and price fluctuation. Second, which is no less important, is the certainty of the source of bioethanol raw materials. Do not let there be a competition between meeting raw materials and food needs and risks if land clearing is carried out.