Jakarta. A lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has expressed support for the extension of Nicke Widyawati's role as the president director of state-owned oil company Pertamina, amid reports of the government's consideration of a replacement.

Notably, under Nicke’s leadership, Pertamina achieved an impressive Rp 56.6 trillion net profit last year, equivalent to $3.8 billion, marking the highest profit in the company’s history, according to Amin Akram, a member of the House of Representatives Commission VI overseeing industry and investment.

The PKS, which positions itself as an opposition to the government, “holds no vested interest” in determining the chief executive officer of Pertamina, Amin said in a recent interview with television network BTV.

"Based on her performance, Nicke is commendable," Amin said.

However, Amin underlined that there is still much to be accomplished by Pertamina, particularly in relation to oil production which has fallen short of the target of 660,000 barrels per day. He pointed out that Pertamina's current output averages 615,500 bpd based on data from the first half of 2023.

"In addition, we note that Pertamina has experienced the most frequent fire incidents at oil depots during Nicke’s leadership. While it is not solely the responsibility of the president director, the lack of transparent publication of investigation results into these incidents raises concerns," he added.

"In general, her performance has been positive, although there is room for improvement."
 
Pertamina managed to achieve an impressive 86 percent increase in net profit last year, driven by higher oil and gas production as well as product sales.

In October 2022, Pertamina was globally ranked second in the Integrated Oil & Gas sub-industry by Sustainalytics, achieving an ESG score of 22.1.