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France’s Total exits Indonesia fuel retail market
The decision makes Total the second oil and gas company to exit Indonesia’s fuel retail market after Malaysia’s Petronas in August 2012.
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French oil company Total headquarters in La Defense business district, near Paris, on Oct. 21, 2014. (AFP/Martin Bureau)
T
otal Oil has closed all of its gas stations in Indonesia as the French oil and gas supermajor throws in the towel in a market overwhelmingly dominated by state-owned Pertamina.
Total Oil Indonesia marketing manager Magdalena Naibaho said on Tuesday that the Paris-based company had closed all 18 of its gas stations across Greater Jakarta and Bandung.
“This decision is in line with Total’s global strategy to actively manage our business portfolio,” she told The Jakarta Postvia text message.
Magda noted that Total would still continue its lubricant selling operations as the other component of its local downstream business. However, she declined to comment on the tight market competition.
The decision makes Total the second oil and gas company to exit Indonesia’s fuel retail market after Malaysia’s Petronas in August 2012, also due to tight competition. Petronas, which opened its first Indonesian gas stations in 2005, closed 15 gas stations that month.
Total’s decision highlights Pertamina’s chokehold over the domestic fuel retail market even after the government liberalized the market in 2001 through the 2001 Oil and Gas Law. The state-owned oil company is, until now, the main distributor of subsidized fuels, which helps attract customers to their gas stations.
Prior to its exit, Total was Indonesia’s fourth-largest fuel retailer after Pertamina with 5,500 gas stations, BP-AKR Corporindo with 130 stations and Shell with 111 stations, according to 2019 data from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).
