The fire that occurred at the oil refinery owned by state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina in Dumai, Riau, added to a long list of a series of fires at Pertamina assets in the last several years.

Pertamina Chief Executive Officer Nicke Widyawati said that there are four factors that caused the fire at Pertamina's refinery based on a study by an international auditor who investigate the fire at the Balongan refinery on March 29, 2021.

"Based on the result of the audit, we have implemented several priorities. In general, there are four possibilities that can happen on our facilities and we can explain them in detail," Nicke said in a parliamentary hearing on April 4, 2023.

One of the factors as Nicke explained is lightning. She explained that Pertamina has started to equip all refineries with a double-layer lightning protection system (LPS).

Another factor that may cause fire incidents is overflowing. In one of the fire cases, Nicke said that it was caused by an overflow of oil.

The third factor as Nicke mentioned is a hydrogen leak, which was revealed as a result of an investigation on the Balikpapan refinery fire on March 4, 2022.

The fourth factor is sulfuric sedimentation, which according to Nicke, can be resolved by revitalizing oil refineries by performing sulfidation.

"We all know that our refinery with old technology can only process low sulfur. Our program such as Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP) was meant to allow our refineries to process high sulfurs, so the price will be cheaper," she explained.

According to Nicke, Pertamina continues to learn from its experience and has taken steps to prevent other incidents from occurring at Pertamina's refinery. "That's our efforts and for that, we have spent around US$ 600 million to build two layers of resiliencies. We continue to learn from the existing cases," Nicke said.

Questions on safety procedures

Nine people were injured, and several houses and houses of worship were damages after a fire broke out at the state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina refinery in Dumai, Riau province, on April 1, 2023. Recurring fire incidents at Pertamina fuel processing and storage has raised questions about the company's monitoring of safety procedure.

Area Manager for Communication, Relations, & CSR for Dumai, Agustiawan said that several people suffered injuries and were sent home after getting treatment at Pertamina’s hospital in Dumai.

According to kompas.com, in the last 3 years, there were six incidents of fire in Pertamina oil refineries and one fuel storage depot. The fire incidents occurred in Balongan oil refinery fire on March 29, 2021; fire at Cilacap oil refinery on November 13, 2021, and on June 11, 2021; a fire incident at Balikpapan oil refinery on May 15, 2022, and March 4, 2022; and the most recent fire incident at Dumai refinery on April 1, 2023. Also recently, Pertamina fuel depot in Plumpang, Jakarta had also caught fire, resulting in dozens of fatalities.

Energy economist from Gadjah Mada University Fahmi Radhi said that the recurring incidents at Pertamina’s fuel storage depot and refineries show how terrible the safety system employed by the company. At the same time, there are no serious and sustained efforts by the management to stop the fire incidents. “There is no investigative audit and feasibility audit against the refineries because the fire incidents occurred again,” Radhi explained.

As a result, Radhi requested that the government replace all current Pertamina directors and commissioners. “As a form of responsibility, the top management, including commissioners and directors, need to be replaced because the incidents took place several times and took the lives of many people,” Radhi added.