REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- PT Pertamina said it would comply with the government policy regarding its Singapore based subsidiary Pertamina Energy Trading Ltd or Petral.

Marketing and Commercial Director of the state oil and gas company Hanung Budya said as a wholly owned company of the government, Pertamina is ready to follow the government policy.

Hanung said so far Petral has performed its oil and oil fuel (BBM) import business transparently and fully audited, however, it has been widely linked to Mafia like traders to enrich individuals causing big losses to the state.

The next government under president elect Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and vice president elect Jusuf Kalla (JK) has indicated it would dissolve Petral.

Hasto Kristiyanto, a Deputy of the Team of Transition for the next Jokowi-JK administration said the coming government would dissolve Petral and its function would be directly handled by its parent company.

"The reason is that Petral being based in Singapore makes it difficult to control," Hasto said.

Dissolution of Petral constitutes an action plan for improvement of oil and gas management system in line with Article 33 of the Constitution, he said.

Importing BBM via Petral and failure of the government in building new refineries have been accused of being part of the design of "Mafia" to keep strong control of Indonesia's oil and gas business.

As a result the country's continued to be heavily dependent on imports for BBM.

Another action plan is to form an oil and gas anti Mafia Task Force, reallocation of BBM subsidy for productive sectors, abolition of brokerage in gas trade, reformation of upstream oil and gas regulator (SKK Migas) through revision of the Oil and Gas Law in compliance with the decision of the Constitutional Court and immediate revision of the Oil and Gas Law.

The new government will built new oil refineries and purchase the share of crude oil of contractors, make Pertamina a "non listed public company", and authorize Pertamina to take over management of oil and gas blocks from contractors ending their contracts.

Contracts for a number of major oil and gas blocks such as that of the Mahakam block in East Kalimantan held by France's Total Indonesie would soon expire.

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