Pertamina Refinery Burns Again, Erick Thohir Admits Directly Contacting The Board Of Directors: I've Tried To Remind You

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The fire incident at Pertamina's oil refinery continues. Recently, there was a fire at the Balikpapan Oil Refinery managed by PT Refinery Pertamina Internasional (KPI).

There have been two fires this year. Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir also raised his voice. Erick said he had tried to remind him.

"At that time, I tried to remind Pertamina and even replace its directors. Of course, replacing is not a continuous solution," he told reporters, Wednesday, May 18.

Regarding the refinery fire, Erick admitted that he had directly contacted the Pertamina Board of Directors. Not only that, but he also held a meeting to ensure standardization.

"It was difficult for me to call yesterday from Pertamina's directors, I also had another meeting to ensure standardization. Why is this vital," he said.

On that occasion, Erick also expressed his empathy for the victims of the fire at the Balikpapan Oil Refinery. The fire, continued Erick, must be an evaluation to do better.

"And frankly I have great empathy for the victims. This is the reason why we have to do better," he said.

For your information, the fire incident at the Pertamina refinery in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Sunday, May 15, left one person dead and five others injured.

Area Manager of Communication, Relations & CSR of the Balikpapan Refinery said Ely Chandra said there were a total of five victims in the fire incident.

"There are three people burnt who are Pertamina workers and currently maximum treatment efforts are being carried out at Pertamina Balikpapan Hospital, 2 victims who were exposed to heat who are workers from contractors have received treatment at the clinic and have returned home. Meanwhile, one other person who was not rescued was a contractor worker," said Ely Chandra to VOI, Sunday.

Initially, the fire appeared at plant 5, Hydro Skimming Complex Unit, Balikpapan Oil Refinery. Then, the fire was successfully extinguished at around 11.31 central Indonesia time.

Plant 5 itself produces gasoline as raw material, and to meet the demand for raw material production, stock optimization will be carried out in the tank and production arrangements at the Balikpapan refinery.

The internal team is currently continuing to make efforts to recover the Balikpapan refinery's operations so that they can return to maximum operation as soon as possible. For the time being, supply transfer is being prepared, in coordination with Pertamina Group. This is to ensure that there is no disruption in the supply of fuel to the community.