Reassuring the House of Representatives that infighting with in state-owned oil and gas giant PT Pertamina will not happen again may not be an easy task. However, newly minted president director Elia Massa Manik confidently told lawmakers that he could nurture enough unity to lead the country’s key asset to a better future.
In his first meeting with tough-talking legislators from Commission VII overseeing energy on Thursday, Elia did not back down from his vision of creating solidarity within the board of directors, which is seen as essential to help Pertamina achieve its goal as a world class energy company by 2025.
“We are currently conducting internal consolidations and nurturing transparency in order to create a solid team,” said Elia, who is the former president director of state-owned plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara III (PTPN III). “If we cannot become a solid unit, then we cannot teach our subordinates to do the same, and in doing so, we will not be able to accelerate [Pertamina] to where we want it to go. If we cannot become a solid unit, I will have failed.”
Elia was brought in last week following the dismissal of president director Dwi Soetjipto and his deputy Ahmad Bambang last month because of the lack of teamwork and escalating conflict that stems from equal authority given to the latter by State Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Rini Soemarno.
The infighting raised concerns that Pertaminas management had become sloppy right when the country's sole state-owned oil and gas company had been handed several crucial tasks.
Earlier this year, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo ordered Pertamina to ensure that the fuel would be sold at the same price in Papua as in Java as well as selling gas at a loss to help priority industrial sectors boost their competitiveness.
Pertamina is also preparing to take over the management of the gas-rich Mahakam Block from a local unit of French Total SA next year and implementing its grand plan to construct and upgrade several major refineries worth billions of dollars. Moreover, in the long term, the firm will acquire overseas oil and gas assets to enable it to procure 473,000 barrels of oil per day amid dwindling domestic reserves.
Apart from creating a unified front among the board of directors, Elia also expressed his desire to shape Pertamina’s workforce to be more flexible and to move from upstream to downstream divisions and vice versa.
This was essential, he claimed, in order to ensure that those who eventually came up through the ranks had management skills for any division, which is necessary in a world class energy company. Meanwhile, Commission VII has called on Elia to stick to his word as it prepared plans for the company which it hopes will be strengthened by the upcoming revision of the 2001 Oil and Gas Law.
“In the upcoming Oil and Gas Law, there is a great possibility that Pertamina’s position will be even stronger than it is now, and so it must be able to adapt [to its new role] this includes everyone from the senior vice presidents to the managers,” lawmaker Ramson Siagian said.
The Commission is considering the possibility of including the creation of an oil and gas holding entity led by Pertamina in the Oil and Gas Law revision.
the holding company will ln clude the Upstream Gil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKK Migas) and the Downstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency (BPH Migas), which is currently in charge of upstream contract negotiation and map fuel distribution in the country.
Jakarta Post, Page-13, Friday, March, 24, 2017
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