PT Pertamina Lubricants announced recently that it has entered a partnership with Indonesia’s national power company to develop electrical transformer oils and lubricants used by energy companies as a way of encouraging domestic industry.
Pertamina signed a memorandum of understanding Nov. 23 with its partner in the collaboration, Perusahaan Listrik Negara, commonly referred to as PLN, a state-owned electricity supplier. Although Pertamina already offers some transformer oils and other lubes used by the industry, officials said Indonesia’s power sector still relies largely on imports of such products.
“Transformer oil is one of the main commodities that is still imported from abroad,” Pertamina President Director Werry Prayogi said in a translation of a Nov. 23 news release. “Now PTPL and PLN are committed to jointly developing transformer oil products domestically with the hope that Pertamina lubricants can continue to encourage [use of local material] increases in national electricity projects.”
Pertamina is a vertically integrated oil and natural gas company that is also owned by the national government.
According to the news release, the two companies will work together to encourage development of infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to produce transformer oil. They will also prioritize use of domestic materials, the supply of which may need to be developed.
Indonesia’s national government and state-owned businesses are working to increase use of domestic alternatives for a range of products.