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Pertamina fires director over fatal fuel storage blaze
Dedi Sunardi's position will be filled by Erry Widiastono, the director of logistics and infrastructure, until the oil and gas giant picks a definitive replacement.
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People look at ruined houses in Plumpang, North Jakarta, on March 4, 2023, after a fire at a nearby state-run fuel storage depot run by energy firm Pertamina.
(AFP/Aditya Aji)
P
ertamina announced on Wednesday that it had "honorably discharged" Dedi Sunardi, the director of business support at the state-owned energy holding company. Dedi had held the position since May 2021.
His place will be filled by Erry Widiastono, Pertamina’s director of logistics and infrastructure. Erry is to keep both positions until the oil and gas giant picks a definitive replacement for Dedi.
"As a company, we thank [Dedi] for his dedication while holding that position," Pertamina vice president of corporate communications Fadjar Djoko Santoso said in a statement on Wednesday.
The move comes after a deadly blaze at Pertamina’s Plumpang depot in North Jakarta that killed at least 19 people living nearby on Friday. The facility supplies 25 percent of Indonesia’s fuel needs.
The fire, which started at around 8 p.m. in a fuel pipe at the depot, quickly spread to surrounding houses and sent residents of the densely populated area into a panic, before firefighters extinguished the flames on Saturday morning.
Pertamina directors have been sacked following incidents in the past. In 2018, the company’s then-president director Elia Massa Manik was sacked over an oil spill in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. Pertamina's marketing director, processing director, asset management director and petrochemical and processing megaproject director were also dismissed.
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir said on Saturday, as quoted from Tempo, he would not hesitate to fire another Pertamina director over repeated accidents, saying “If needed, I will do it again”.
