he Finance Ministry’s budgeting director general, Askolani, has said the government will closely monitor any corporate action by state-owned energy holding company Pertamina, which has received a green light to sell its assets to improve the company’s financial performance.
“The Finance Ministry, the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry will regularly meet. We will always monitor Pertamina,” said Askolani said in Jakarta on Monday after a meeting with House of Representatives’ lawmakers on Monday as reported by kompas.com.
Askolani assured the government would monitor Pertamina to ensure the company was financially healthy and able to implement the government’s task of developing the oil and gas sector.
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno has granted Pertamina permission to conduct several measures “in order to save the firm’s financial situation”.
Apart from allowing it to share its assets in upstream projects, Rini, in her letter issued on June 26, also gave Pertamina the green light to spin off refineries in Cilacap, Central Java, (RU IV Cilacap) and a refinery in Balikpapan (RU V Balikpapan) in East Kalimantan in line with the refinery development master plan.
Observers have linked the plan to sell Pertamina’s assets to the declining performance of the company.
Commenting on public debate over the plan, Askolani said the measure had been stipulated in prevailing law . “Pertamina only implements the regulation,” he added. (bbn)
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