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tate oil and gas firm PT Pertamina says it sent a legal complaint to PT Freeport Indonesia, the local unit of US-based Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc, calling the miner’s fuel tender unfair.

Freeport Indonesia, which operates the giant Grasberg gold and copper mine in Papua, opened a tender for the procurement of high-speed diesel in August this year. Through the tender, the company sought fuel producers that could supply the company with between 30,000 to 44,000 kiloliters of high-speed diesel per month for a period of one year.

Pertamina, which participated in the tender, said the auction was not fair. Pertamina spokesman Mochamad Harun said last week that Freeport did not give Pertamina enough time to submit its proposal. “We got the invitation to participate in the tender only two days before it is closed,” Harun said.

He added that the tender did not include several normal processes, such as a technical meeting and
site visit.

“This definitely gives the advantages to Freeport’s existing suppliers, who are already familiar with Freeport’s operations,” he said, adding that Freeport finally awarded the US$340 million contract to a Singapore-based company, a longtime Freeport supplier.

“We officially sent a legal complaint to Freeport last month. We expect them to treat us fairly in future tenders,” Harun said.

Freeport Indonesia spokesman Ramdani Sirait did not respond to a request for comment.

Pertamina said the company’s fuel sales to the industrial sector reached 1.5 million kiloliters as of October this year.

In December last year, the company won a $229 million contract to supply 446,000 kiloliters of fuel to PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, the operator of the Batu Hijau gold and copper mine in West Nusa Tenggara over three years, starting from January 2010.

On Friday, Pertamina also said it had received the green light from the government to increase the volume of subsidized fuel by 2 million to 2.5 million kiloliters. “The finance minister said the budget was available and the government would discuss this with the House of Representatives soon,” Harun said.

Pertamina is the major distributor of subsidized fuel, which has a quota regulated by the state budget.

The 2010 state budget caps subsidized fuel consumption at 36.5 million kiloliters. Due to high consumption, the government plans to increase the quota to 38.38 million kiloliters.

State oil and gas company, meanwhile, said it would import an additional 40,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas per month for six months after domestic supply was disrupted by a problem with a mooring buoy in the Natuna field.