House of Representatives (DPR RI) Speaker Puan Maharani pressed for conducting a thorough police investigation into the recent fire at the Pertamina oil refinery facility in Cilacap on Saturday (Nov 13).
“The police must thoroughly investigate the fire. If this conflagration is proven to be an arson attack, the perpetrators must be brought to justice,” Speaker Maharani stated in Jakarta on Monday.
She urged the police to investigate likely arson motives in the refinery fire, as such incidents had reportedly occurred at Pertamina’s oil refinery facility in 2021.
Maharani lamented that the fire accident, apart from causing significant damage to oil refinery facilities, posed a potential danger for residents living in proximity to the refinery complex.
Despite the fire having consumed a large amount of fuel oil stock in the refinery, the speaker convinced the residents to refrain from panic buying, as the current oil supply would be unaffected by the fire.
“Pertamina had ensured that oil and gas supplies are secured. Residents need not panic, as the government has taken measures to mitigate possible effects of the fire,” Maharani affirmed.
The House speaker also urged state oil company and operator of the scorched refinery facility of PT Pertamina to conduct an audit on the existing security system and measures at all oil storage facilities operated by the company, as extraordinary measures were deemed necessary to handle conflagration at such facilities.
“DPR RI leaders expressed their concern over the fire incident at the Pertamina oil refinery facility in Cilacap, Central Java, as this is not the first to have occurred at the facility in 2021,” she stated.
The speaker noted that the recent fire was the third of its kind to have occurred at Pertamina’s oil refinery facilities in 2021, as a fire had earlier broken out on March 29 at another refinery facility in Indramayu, West Java.
Firefighters deployed at the Indramayu facility took two days to successfully bring the conflagration under control, she added.
Source: Antara News