Indonesia’s president has cancelled US$7.4 billion (RM32 billion) of pipeline and fuel storage projects being undertaken by the state energy company, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Resources Minister Rizal Ramli told a parliament hearing today.

The cancelled projects include US$2.4 billion in fuel storage that Pertamina was planning to build and US$5 billion of fuel pipelines.

“This is not a priority because we need to increase funds to import finished goods,” Ramli said of the fuel storage projects, while the fuel pipelines were regarded as less urgent than gas pipelines needed in Papua and Kalimantan.

The projects were scrapped during a meeting with President Joko Widodo yesterday, Ramli said.

- Reuters