Govt to announce candidates for Pertamina chief

By the end of the week the government will announce the names of people being considered as candidates for the replacement of Ari Sumarno as president director of state oil producer and distributor PT Pertamina.

State Minister for State Enterprises Sofyan Djalil told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday that Pertamina's board of commissioners had proposed five candidates that the ministry would assess before holding elections at the next, as yet to be scheduled, shareholder meeting.

"We are currently trying to find the appropriate timing to conduct the assessment. Hopefully we will be ready to announce the names by the end of this week," Sofyan said.

Sofyan said the decision to replace Ari had more to do with the necessity of passing leadership to the younger executives than with Pertamina's recent performance.

"We asked the commissioners to come up with names from within the company. They will know who to choose," he said.