Pertamina’s director of gas and renewable energy Yenni Andayani explained that the plunge in world oil prices had affected the company’s gas price competitiveness. As a result, Pertamina’s gas sales slightly declined. 

Yenni said there was a decrease in both gas transportation and commercial gas trade in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year.

"The decrease in gas transportation was because producers could no longer continue their production. Meanwhile, the decrease in gas trade was because the industry faced difficulties in absorbing gas, which was actually still available,” Yenny said in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to the company's data, gas transportation reached 261 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) in the first semester of 2016, down by 1.5 percent from 265 bscf in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Pertamina recorded 338,000 billion British thermal units (BBTU) in gas trade in the first half of 2016, down by 21 percent from 428,000 BBTU in the first half of last year.

However, Yenny said the company had managed to maintain its liquid natural gas (LNG) regasification activity, which reached 1,398 million BBTU in the first half of 2016, jumping by 59.7 percent from the same period last year.

"We can still maintain regasification activities because it is based on an annual contract," she added. (ebf)

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