By Bernadette Christina
TANGERANG, Indonesia (Reuters) – (This May 21 story has been corrected from the source to show that Pertamina has been issuing tenders to buy Russian crude, not importing Russian crude, in paragraph 1; also corrects the name of the company to ‘Kilang Pertamina Internasional’ from ‘Kilang Pertamina International’ in paragraph 2)
Indonesia’s Pertamina has been including Russian crude in its purchase tenders since last year for its refineries but it has yet to import any oil from Russia, the CEO of Pertamina’s refinery unit said at a conference on Wednesday.
“We have opened (to imports from Russia) since last May,” Taufik Aditiyawarman, the CEO of the Kilang Pertamina Internasional refinery unit, said to reporters on the sidelines of the Indonesian Petroleum Association conference.
He added that they still comply with U.S. sanctions on Russian crude in place as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Amid an ongoing government probe into alleged corruption in oil imports between 2018 and 2023, he said that there may be some limitations for trading companies to join Pertamina’s tenders.
“We are in line with what the prosecutor’s office is investigating. So we also have to be in line with them, there may be limitations on the number of traders who can be invited,” Aditiyawarman said.
On Monday, the Indonesian Attorney General’s Office said it is trying to question some Singapore-based trading companies about the investigation into Pertamina’s trading.
(Reporting by Bernadette Christina; Writing by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
