Petrokimia Threatened by Bankruptcy
Monday, 04 December, 2006 | 16:21 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: PT Petrokimia Gresik is threatened by bankruptcy. This is because several business units are totally inactive because there is not any gas flow to the factory after the gas pipe in Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java exploded some time ago.

Petrokomia Gresik Director Arifin Tasrif explained that currently the factory’s ammonia production activity is totally dead. The factory’s other units which produce fertilizer of ZA, SP-36 and NPK types suffer disturbances.

“Our production capacity became very limited,” Tasrif told Tempo. According to his calculation, now the urea fertilizer production volume dropped to around 1,300 tons per day. Ammonia production volume dropped to 1,200 tons per day.

Tasrif said the company also experience a Rp500 million loss per day because it must convert fuel oil from gas to other kinds of fuel for its energy generator.

“The loss is big because the fuel price, especially the diesel fuel, is seven times more expensive than the gas price,” he said. If Petrokimia must replace gas fuel with diesel fuel whose price is set by PT PLN (State Electricity Company), urea production cost rises more than US$400 per ton.

Tasrif hopes that the government can soon facilitate the gas supply alternative via a swap between companies, such as PT PGN (State Gas Company), PT PLN and PT Pertamina. If all the companies can transfer 50 million cubic feet per day, Tasrif estimates that the urea factory Petrokimia can be saved.

“In principal, the swap has been accepted by each side, but the possibility is just being explored because it must be tested first,” said Tasrif.

Secretary of State Minister for State Enterprises, Said Didu, said currently the government has determined two main agendas to overcome the Petrokimia Gresik matter: by transferring the supply from other fertilizer factories including Pupuk Sriwidjaja, Pupuk Kaltim and PT Pupuk Iskandar Muda.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged that the transfer cannot last long. If the situation continues for 10 months, he worries that the Petrokimia matter will also influence other fertilizer factories.

Riky Ferdianto and Sutarto