| By Andi Abdussalam |
Jakarta, July 27 (ANTARA) - The cause of damage to the engine fuel pumps of hundreds, if not thousands, of cars in Jakarta in recent weeks still remains a mystery. While investigation is still underway, public suspicion has arisen that the damage could have been caused by law quality of premium gasoline sold by state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina. Even, there are suspicions that Pertamina has deliberately reduced the octane of its subsidized premium gasoline in an effort to discourage consumers from using premium gasoline so that they would turn to other quality of gasoline, although more expensive non-subsidized fuel, like Pertamax. The team carried out inspections in oil refineries, supply of imported premium and gasoline refueling stations (SPBU). Director General of Oil and Gas of the ESDM Evita Legowo said on the sidelines of a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission VII on energy affairs on Tuesday that her side was still conducting field tests in a number of gasoline spots to obtain the final results. "Today, we visited seven gasoline spots in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi," she said. Evita said that based on the preliminary examinations in four gasoline spots, most of the 11 criteria like the octane rate, sulfur as well as water content in the gasoline were in accordance with the requirements. "The results of the study indicated that all have been in accordance with the required standards," she said. The Association of Indonesian Auto-Industries (Gaikindo) has earlier invited state-owned oil company Pertamina to jointly investigate the cause of fuel pump damage in a number of car brands suspected to have been caused by low-quality gasoline. "We will also coordinate with sole agents (ATPM) to collect information about the issue," Gaikindo general chairman Sudriman MR said. He said Gaikindo and ATPMs would meet and conduct coordination to determine the steps that needed to be taken and after that they would meet with Pertamia to discuss the damage to fuel pumps found in various car makes recently in the country. The president director of PT Toyota Astra Motor, Johnny Darmawan, said the ATPM along with Pertamina had better find solutions to the problem. "This is to avoid finger pointing," he said. He said he would not accuse Pertamina in connection with the issue like many others who had been reported in the media as saying that the problem was caused by the poor quality of the gasoline produced by Pertamina. Several popular car makes such as Toyota Avanza, Toyota Yaris, Vios as well as Honda Jazz, Freed, CR-V and City and Nissan Serena had recently been reported to have often had problems with their fuel pumps. The Blue Bird taxi group has reported that about 1,200 taxis of its fleet have suffered damage to their engines' fuel pumps. The director of marketing and after-sales service of PT Honda Prospect Motor, Jonfis Fandi concurred with Darmawan. "We will work together to investigate the root cause of the problem in the fuel pumps in several of our products," he said. Earlier, Bambang Soesatyo of the Golkar Party Faction in the House of Representatives (DPR) called on Pertamina and police to help explain allegations that premium gasoline had caused damage to many cars' fuel pumps due to its inferior quality. "Pertamina and police must honestly explain the quality of premium gasoline," he said. Bambang said that Petamina and its distributors must cooperate and support police steps to investigate the problem. "I am concerned because some people have been suspicious that Pertamina has deliberately lowered the octane content of its gasoline," Bambang said. He said he did not believe Pertamina had the courage to do that careless act but there was now opinion developing within the society that Pertamina had deliberately lowered the octane content in an effort to lower the volume of subsidized premium consumption. Thus, it would indirectly encourage consumers to choose other Pertmaina products with better quality like pertamax. "This story has been developing in the society because they did not receive honest explanations," he said. Therefore, Bambang called on Pertamina and its distributors to be proactive in collecting data in the fields to reinforce police finding. After all, the energy and mineral resources investigation team in its preliminary calibration premium gasoline sold by Pertamina is in line with its specifications. Director General Evita Legowo said that the field checks by the team found no problem with the premium gasoline. Evita suspected that the cause in the decline of gasoline quality was dirt at SPBU tanks. "The tanks must periodically be cleaned," she said. She also stressed that the change in the octane rate from 90 to 88 would not cause damage in the short term. "It will at the most cause the engine to tickle," she said. However, she added, in the long-run, the reduction in the octane rate would cause damage to the engine. Earlier, Erie Soedomo, director of the downstream fuel oil regulating body, suspected that damage to fuel pumps of car engines which of late had increased was caused by water which had entered into fuel tank containing premium gasoline. ***2*** |
Selasa, 27 Juli 2010
CAUSE OF DAMAGE TO CAR'S FUEL PUMPS STILL A MYSTERY
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