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tate-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina is expecting diesel fuel consumption to grow sluggishly this year partly because of slowing demand from the mining industry, which is seeing low commodity prices.

The company senior vice president for fuel retailing, Muhammad Iskandar, said he was expecting that consumption of non-subsidized diesel fuel would likely total about 11 million kiloliters, almost the same compared to the volume recorded in 2015.

'€œThe volume would be the same if there is no significant move in the mining industry. Last year, we saw slow demand as many mining activities ceased operation. It led to less use of trucks,'€ Iskandar said.

Mining companies in the country extracting different minerals, from coal to nickel, have been struggling to survive the plunging commodity prices caused partly by the global slowing of economic growth. Indonesia'€™s coal reference price (HBA) dropped by around 16 percent from January to December 2015.

Data from Pertamina showed that consumption of subsidized diesel fuel totaled 13.97 million kiloliters in 2015, a 12.4 percent drop compared to the 15.95 million kiloliters consumed in 2014. Under a fixed subsidy scheme in the state budget, the volume of subsidized diesel fuel was set at 14.7 million kiloliters this year.

Meanwhile, Iskandar said the consumption of non-subsidized diesel fuel totaled about 11 million kiloliters in 2015, which was almost 3 million kiloliters lower than in 2014.

Regarding the gasoline fuel, Pertamina recorded consumption of Premium-branded gasoline in Java and Bali areas at 15.74 million kiloliters in 2015, which was an 8.7 percent drop compared to the 17.24 million kiloliters consumed in 2014.

Consumption outside of Java and Bali also saw a slight drop of 0.9 percent to 12.25 million kiloliters in 2015 compared to 12.36 million kiloliters in 2014.

The drop was caused by the lower price of gasoline, which has made a higher quality of the product cheaper, Iskandar said. The drop in global oil prices has made the company lower the retail costs of a number of its fuel products.

The consumption of Pertamax-branded gasoline jumped to 2.4 million kiloliters in 2015, compared to only 817,000 kiloliters a year earlier.

However, unlike diesel fuel, Iskandar said Pertamina expected a slight increase in gasoline consumption this year.

'€œPremium consumption this year will likely increase by 1 to 2 percent because public activities will be moved by accelerated infrastructure projects,'€ Iskandar said. Earlier this year, the government decided to lower gasoline and subsidized diesel fuel prices following the drop in the benchmark prices of crude oil.

Initially, the government planned to charge the same price and collect the surplus for a fund to be used partly for the development of energy infrastructure and to create a buffer when global prices started to jump. However, the plan was postponed following public criticism.

The director general for oil and gas at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, IGN Wiratmaja Puja, said the government was still considering such a fund but was working on a better mechanism for it.

'€œWe are still preparing the regulation. We are also waiting for the House of Representatives to open its new sessions this year and discuss the plan,'€ he said.