JAKARTA PT Pertamina is in the public spotlight following a corruption case that ensnared their subsidiary which allegedly cost the state up to Rp1 million billion.
The Attorney General's Office (AGO) recently exposed the corrupt practices carried out at PT Pertamina Patra Niaga. This corrupt practice occurred between 2018 and 2023.
The disclosure of this case stems from complaints from people in several areas regarding the poor quality of Pertamax fuel products. Starting from the community report, the AGO conducted an investigation and collected data.
According to the evidence collected by the investigative team, it was revealed that there was a mixing practice in the production of Pertamax with Pertalite or RON 90.
"Investigators found that there was RON 90 or even below, namely RON 88, which was mixed with RON 92. So, there was a blundering practice that did not match the standards," explained the Director of Investigation of the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes at the AGO, Abdul Qohar at a press conference in Jakarta, Wednesday (26/3/2025).
Several officials have been named as suspects in the Pertamax oplosan corruption scandal, including the President Director of Pertamina Patra Niaga, Riva Siahaan. The AGO is still conducting further investigations to reveal the other parties involved.
To find out how the mass media reported this case, Netray monitored online media coverage from February 25 to March 2, 2025 using the first "firstx" keyword.
The results were found 1033 articles out of a total of 68 media. In 5 days, the monitoring of this corruption-related news was so massive that it reached hundreds of news per day, "said a report byNetray.
The peak of the news occurred on February 27, 2025. That day the news was filled with the arrest of the new suspect Maya Kusmaya, and the amount of state losses due to corruption reached Rp1 quadrillion if calculated from 2018 to 2023.
To find out the topic that dominates the mass media the Netray uses a popular top words feature or vocabulary. The name most discussed by the mass media is Riva Siahaan, the President Director of Pertamina Patra Niaga, who has been in office since June 2023. Riva is suspected of having played a role in directing the mixing of Pertalite (RON 90) fuel oil into Pertamax (RON 92).
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This Pertalite that has been purchased will then be blended into Storage or Depo to become RON 92. Together with Sani Dinar Saifuddin as Director of Optimization of Feedstock & Products at PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (PT KPI) and Agus Purwono as Vice President of Feedstock Management at PT KPI allegedly conducting consolidation in downstream optimization meetings.
They deliberately arranged a meeting so that the decisions taken led to imports of crude oil and refinery products. In addition, they lowered production at oil refineries on purpose, so that domestic crude demand was not absorbed. Domestic raw oil production by Cooperation Contract Contractors (KKS) was also rejected on the grounds that it did not meet specifications.
Apart from Riva, the names widely discussed by the mass media are Maya Kusmaya as Marketing Director of PT Pertamina Patra Niaga and Edward Corne as VP Trading for Pertamina Patra Niaga products who were also dragged into the vortex of this case.
Both are suspected of buying fuel with lower RON, but paying for it as if it were equivalent to RON 92, which caused huge losses to the state. Not only that, they also made illegal blendings, mixing RON 88 with RON 92 at PT Orbit Terminal Merak to produce fuel with better quality on paper, but still not standard.
Interestingly, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok), the former President Commissioner of Pertamina, also spoke out in this case. Ahok knew Riva Siahaan, even Riva was one of the President Directors who had sparked his anger. Both, according to Ahok, had been involved in friction several times.
One of the tensions between them occurred when Ahok demanded the elimination of cash transactions at all gas stations. He also encouraged the use of digital measuring devices (gauges) to increase efficiency and transparency. However, instead of following his directives, related parties chose to cooperate with Telkom to measure the capacity of the tank, even though this cost a lot of money.
Pertamina Patra Niaga Corporate Secretary Heppy Wulansari emphasized that fuel products at Pertamina terminals are in accordance with their respective RONs, namely Pertalite RON 90 and Pertamax RON 92. However, netizens are already angry.
Apart from the news media, Netrayingin caught the opinion of netizens through social media TikTok using the first and pertalite keywords for the past 5 days, 658 video uploads from 635 users were found. Of the total video that has been played a total of 121.8 million times and re-shared 561.7 thousand times.
This case sparked a wave of reactions from netizens, who were busy expressing their frustration through short videos on various platforms. One of the most viral uploads came from the @alvinz217 account, which highlighted the anger of oplosan Pertamax users who felt cheated.
In the video, he insinuates that Pertamax is actually only Pertalite with a fast track. This upload received 452.5 thousand likes, 5.8 thousand comments, and has been re-shared 53.1 thousand times, making it one of the most popular on social media.
Even the Taarts Animation account @taarts_tok, seems to have uploaded the cheating impact of Ustad Abdul Somad. He also thinks that the corruptors are really corrupt because they have taken advantage of public ignorance to deceive. The public alone cannot distinguish what Pertamax and Pertalite are like.
Meanwhile, the @owner.garasiagan account seemed to issue a sarkastic jokes that PertaX was a PERTALITE that did not queue. As a result of Pertamina's corruption, netizens @taratepar were seen reporting that now the private gas station, Shell, looks crowded with buyers. According to him, Shell has now managed to rise because it has maintained its quality for a long time.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
