Indonesia’s state-owned energy firm Pertamina has started supplying low-sulphur bunker fuel to oceangoing vessels at Krakatau port, in line with its ambitions to develop bunkering services in the Sunda strait, says an article published in Argus media.
Bunker Services Development
Pertamina said it supplied 175,000 litres (1,100 bl) of low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) to the Elona bulk carrier on 27 August, in the first such bunkering service at Krakatau port, near Jakarta. The company had previously supplied LSFO to oceangoing vessels at Jakarta and Surabaya ports in Java and Balikpapan on the island of Kalimantan.
Pertamina and Krakatau port agreed earlier this month to develop bunker services in the Sunda strait, a shipping chokepoint between Indonesia’s two largest islands of Sumatra and Java located about 840km south of Singapore.
In the way of the Sunda Strait
Indonesia is planning to establish infrastructure for the marine industry to entice more ships to bunker there instead of the strait of Malacca.
The Sunda strait is mostly used by vessels sailing from the Cape to east Asia, and by Australian vessels going to southeast or east Asian ports. About 53,000 vessels passed along the Sunda strait in 2020, compared to 120,000 using the Malacca and Singapore straits, according to data from Indonesia’s maritime affairs authority.
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Source: Argus media
