Fuel Supplies Adequate Year And: Minister

Jakarta (Antara) - State-owned Enterprises Minister Rini M Soemarno has said the country's stock of subsidized fuel will last until the end of the year. "On Thursday (October 30), I met with the management of state oil and gas company Pertamina and found we have adequate stocks and there will not be any problem with supplies," the minister stated here on Friday. She noted there was no possibility of running short of subsidized fuel since the volume of standby stocks was large. "I feel calm after learning that stocks are available," she added. However, Rini who was installed as the energy and mineral resources minister on October 27, 2014, in Joko Widodo's 'Working Cabinet" for the 2014-19 period, warned that a fuel shortage could arise if the stocks were not managed well. "But after my talks with Pertamina yesterday, I saw our stocks were adequate," she added. She remarked that President Joko Widodo had stressed on changing the fuel oil subsidy type, from consumption subsidy to production subsidy, of course with a yellow card. "It will depend on us whether we can divert it or not. When viewed from the state budget aspect, it seems the subsidy has burdened the budget, as, after all, the current price of oil is high," she observed. The government has fixed the quota of subsidized fuel oil at 46 million kiloliters until the end of 2014.(*)