Petral’s assets worth $2b, says Pertamina

JAKARTA. State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina says the assets of its Singapore-based trading arm Pertamina Energy Trading Ltd. (Petral) are estimated to be worth US$2 billion.

“From what we understand, based on our latest information from Pertamina’s finance directorate, its assets amount to around $2 billion,” Pertamina’s corporate communication vice president Wianda A.Pusponegoro said as quoted by Antara in a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.

She said Petral’s assets were being assessed to determine their exact value. Most of Petral’s assets are in form of transactional assets and trade credits.

Wianda further explained that the $2 billion worth of assets included those belonging to the firm’s subsidiaries, namely Pertamina Energy Services (PES) Pte. Ltd. and Zambesi Investment Ltd.

“All stock owned by Petral and its two subsidiaries was taken over by Pertamina in November 2013,” she said.

In human resources-related matters, Wianda said, there was no problem because most Petral employees were Indonesian nationals.

“Because most of them are recorded as Pertamina employees, they will be immediately returned to Indonesia. Meanwhile, for foreign employees, they will be provided with proper compensation based on prevailing regulations on liquidation,” she said.

Pertamina considered Petral’s role no longer significant to its business operations and officially closed the company on May 13 and is carrying out measures to liquidate its subsidiaries.