JAKARTA: Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina plans to import around 9 million barrels of gasoline in April, unchanged from the estimate for March, based on a survey of market participants last week.
The estimates provided by market watchers for April spanned the range of 8.5 million barrels to 9.5 million barrels. They were unable to provide a breakdown of volumes between the three grades of 88 RON, 92 RON and 95 RON.The higher imports are supported by seasonal demand and the need for stock building prior to Ramadan which starts May 15.
Late last week, Pertamina bought via tender 200,000 barrels of 88 RON gasoline for April 21-23 loading from Singapore or Malaysia at a discount of around $2.50/b to Mean of Platts Singapore 92 RON gasoline assessments, FOB.
In addition, Pertamina also has a term tender to import 900,000 barrels of 92 RON high octane mogas component for delivery over February-June.
The pricing basis and seller were unconfirmed at the time of writing. The term tender has two options — either 2-3 cargoes/month of 200,000-300,000 barrels each or one cargo every month of 500,000 barrels each.
