OREANDA-NEWS. June 26, 2014. PT Pertamina (Persero) projects that Elpiji (Pertamina’s brand for LPG) consumption in 2014 will reach 6.1 million tons, increasing 9.1 percent compared to the realization last year which reached 5.59 million tons.
 
Pertamina Non Fuel Marketing Senior Vice President Taryono said that since the application of the Kerosene-to-LPG conversion program until 2013, the Elpiji consumption reaches 24 percent per year in average. The consumption of 3 kg LPG jumped from 0.55 million ton in 2008 to 4.39 million tons in 2013. On the other hand, the sales of subsidized Elpiji are relatively stable at between 1.1 million and 1.2 million tons per year.
 
“Seeing the current trend, we predict the consumption of Elpiji until the end of the year, particularly those supplied by Pertamina, will reach 6.1 million tons comprising 5.01 million tons of 3 kg LPG and 1.09 million tons of non-subsidized LPG,” Taryono explained. The high increase in 3 Kg Elpiji consumption is in line with the target to complete the conversion program this year. If the target can be achieved, there will be 58 million 3 Kg Elpiji packade that have been distributed to customers since the beginning of the program until the end of this year.
 
However, he went on, Pertamina projected that the consumption of LPG would continue to grow 6% in average per year. In addition to growing consumption due to growing amount of families, Pertamina also aimed to boost sales of non-subsidized Elpiji from 1.1 million tons to around between 1.3 million and 1.4 million tons in the next five years. This thing was in line with the growth of consumption in the commercial and industrial sector as well as middle-upper class of households which became the target of non-subsidized Elpiji sales.
 
To ensure that the distribution of 3 kg Elpiji touches the right target, Pertamina will run a monitoring system for 3 kg Elpiji distribution using information technology or usually known as SIMOL3K. Taryono said with the implementation of SIMOL3K, Pertamina can monitor the distribution of 3 kg Elpiji until the base level.
 
“With this system, Pertamina is equipped with a log book containing the identity of customers and their purchasing volume. They will manually register the data which will then be incorporated into the SIMOL3K system. With this system, the level of demand and consumption of 3 kg Elpiji in an area can be registered and monitored well. This condition will be useful in planning and supervision so that the utilization of 3 kg Elpiji will go to the intended target.”
 
SIMOL3K, Taryono continued, had been run gradually since the end of December 2013 and would go live nationally in August 2014. He also said that if SIMOL3K and the closed distribution system run by the government could be implemented at the same time, that would ensure more controllable distribution of 3 Kg Elpiji.