LPG price to soar 41 pct in Indonesia

Indonesia's state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina will raise the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by 41 percent early next year to 6,000 rupiah (60 US cents) per kilogram from the current 4,250 rupiah (42.5 cents).

Pertamina's LPG marketing assistant manager Rosidi Hasyim was quoted Friday by The Jakarta Post daily as saying the firm had suffered a financial loss of 900 billion rupiah (90 million US dollars) per year because the domestic LPG price was lower than the international price. LPG is not subsidized by the government and will have to conform to market prices.

He said the new price would allow Pertamina to get 200 rupiah ( 20 cents) profit per kilogram of LPG.

"We are awaiting the board of directors' approval," he said.

A 12-kg tank of LPG is officially sold at 51,000 rupiah (5.1 dollars) but in the market the price could reach 6 dollars per tank.

Indonesia's annual production of LPG stands at between 3.5 million tons and 4 million tons. Half of this is sold into the domestic market. Pertamina expects to sell 1.2 million metric tons to households and industry this year.

Source: Xinhua