Pertamax sales down as consumers migrate to Premium: Govt

Recent increases in the price of state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina's non-subsidized fuel Pertamax has triggered a migration of Pertamax customers to subsidized Premium and other products offered by other fuel distributors.

Data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry shows that Pertamax sales in mid-March had dropped by 10.8 percent to an average of 1,900 kiloliters per day, from 2,030 liters per day in January.

Pertamina prices increased from Rp 7,850 per liter in January to Rp 7,950 as of mid-March. Just last week, the price increased further to Rp 8,700 per liter.

“The high disparity between the price of Pertamax [and that of Premium] has led to the drop in Pertamax sales,” Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahidy Saleh said Monday, as quoted by kontan.co.id.


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He added, however, that not all Pertamax consumers had migrated to Premium. Some had instead started buying products offered by foreign oil distributors such as Petronas and Shell.

Data from the ministry shows that Premium consumption, on the other hand, had increased by 5.5 percent per month throughout the first quarter of this year.

In January, an average of 64,100 kiloliters of Premium were sold every day; in February 65,070 kiloliters per day; and in March, as of Monday, 67,620 kiloliters per day.

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