ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia has named seven suspects in the corruption case in the management of crude oil and refined products at PT Pertamina Subholding and Cooperation Contract Contractors in 2018–2023.
“Based on witness statements, expert statements, documentary evidence that has been legally confiscated, the investigative team has named seven people as suspects,” said the Director of Investigations at the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes at the Attorney General’s Office, Abdul Qohar at the Attorney General’s Building, Jakarta, Monday evening, February 24 2025.
The seven suspects have the initials RS as Main Director of PT Pertamina Patra Niaga, SDS as Director of Feedstock and Product Optimization of PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional, and YF as PT Pertamina International Shipping.
Then AP as VP Feedstock Management of PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional, MKAR as beneficial owner of PT Navigator Khatulistiwa, DW as Commissioner of PT Navigator Khatulistiwa and Commissioner of PT Jenggala Maritim, and GRJ as Commissioner of PT Jenggala Maritim and Main Director of PT Orbit Terminal Merak.
The seven suspects will be detained for the next 20 days for questioning starting Monday evening.
Meanwhile, Pertamina stated that it respects the Attorney General’s Office regarding the determination of this suspect.
“Pertamina is ready to cooperate with the authorities and hopes that the legal process can run smoothly while still prioritizing the legal principle of presumption of innocence,” said Pertamina VP Corporate Communication Fadjar Djoko Santoso.
Previously, Head of the Legal Information Center at the Attorney General’s Office, Harli Siregar, said that this case began when the government issued Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation Number 42 of 2018 concerning priorities for the use of petroleum to meet domestic needs.
“With this aim, PT Pertamina is obliged to look for domestically produced oil to meet domestic needs,” he said.
He said that oil from private Cooperation Contract Contractors must be offered to PT Pertamina. If the offer is rejected by PT Pertamina, then the rejection is used to submit an export recommendation.
However, Pertamina’s subholding, namely PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (KPI), is suspected of trying to avoid the agreement.
Furthermore, during this period there was also the State’s share of Crude Oil and Condensate exported due to a reduction in refinery production intake capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, at the same time, PT Pertamina imported crude oil to meet the refinery’s production intake.
State Losses IDR 193 Trillion
The Attorney General’s Office said that the corruption case caused state financial losses of IDR 193.7 trillion.
“Several of these unlawful acts have resulted in state financial losses of around IDR 193.7 trillion,” explained Abdul Qohar.
These losses come from various components, namely losses from domestic crude oil exports, losses from imports of crude oil through brokers, losses from imports of fuel oil through brokers and losses from providing compensation and subsidies.
Qohar explained that the position in this case is that in the 2018–2023 period, the fulfillment of domestic crude oil must prioritize domestic oil supplies.
PT Pertamina (Persero) is also obliged to seek petroleum supplies from domestic contractors before planning to import petroleum.
This is regulated in Article 2 and Article 3 of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation Number 42 of 2018 which regulates priorities for the use of petroleum to meet domestic needs.
However, Qohar said, the suspects RS, SDS and AP carried out conditioning in downstream optimization meetings which were used as the basis for reducing refinery production so that domestic oil production was not completely absorbed.
This condition means that the fulfillment of crude oil and refined products is carried out by import.
Qohar explained that when oil refinery production was deliberately reduced, domestic crude oil production by Cooperation Contract Contractors was also deliberately rejected on the grounds that the specifications did not match and did not meet economic value. So, automatically the domestic part of the Cooperation Contract Contractor must be exported abroad.
Then, to meet domestic needs, PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional imports crude oil and PT Pertamina Patra Niaga imports refinery products.
“When the import purchase price is compared with the price of domestic petroleum production, there is a very high comparison of price components or very significant price differences,” he explained.
He said, in the procurement of crude oil imports by PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional and refinery products by PT Pertamina Patra Niaga, facts were obtained that there were evil acts between state officials, namely Pertamina subholding, and brokers.
“The suspects RS, SDS and AP won the brokerage of crude oil and refined products unlawfully,” he said.
Apart from that, he continued, suspect DW and suspect GRJ communicated with suspect AP in order to obtain high prices when the conditions had not been met and to obtain approval from suspect SDS to import crude oil and from suspect RS for refined products.
As a result of this fraud, the basic price component used as a reference for determining the market index price for fuel oil to be sold to the public became higher, and then the market index price became the basis for providing compensation and subsidies for fuel oil every year through the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).
As a result, the state suffered financial losses of IDR 193.7 trillion. However, this number is a temporary estimate from investigators.
The Attorney General’s Office said that the exact value of the loss was in the process of being calculated together with experts. (AT Network)
Follow Us at Google News and WA Channel