Following the Indonesian government’s plan to limit the use of subsidized premium gasoline beginning on April 1, 2012, state-owned P.T. Pertamina requested the government to issue a policy that will protect the company’s non-subsidized Pertamax gasoline product. According to Pertamina President Director Karen Agustiawan, the protection is needed as a manifestation of the government’s solidarity with Pertamina. “The governments of other countries also do it,” she said. The state-owned company is asking the government to require private companies that sell products similar to Pertamax to buy them from Pertamina, and allow these companies to buy from other sources or import only after Pertamina’s stocks run out. Agustiawan said that Pertamina should also be allowed to sell Pertamax, which the company produces, at a lower price than the other sellers. Agustiawan also said that Pertamina would need the government’s protection because the company is building two refineries at a cost of US$20 billion. The company is planning to build a total of seven refineries: two new refineries and five improvement projects which will have a combined total production 22.8 million kiloliters of high octane gasoline. Citing Malaysia, where a new company is allowed to set up a gas station only after building a refinery, Agustiawan said, “Here, even a company that has no refinery can set up a gasoline station.” She added that so far, some 3,000 Pertamina gas stations in Java and Bali are ready to sell Pertamax. “The rest is still awaiting a presidential decree and it takes around three months to add new dispensers or tanks. However I believe they will all be ready in time,” she explained. (January 18, 2012)