Indonesia's Listrik Negara Loss Widens on Fuel Costs

By Berni Moestafa

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, Indonesia's state-owned power producer, said its first-half net loss widened to 1 trillion rupiah ($109 million) from 944 billion rupiah as a doubling of oil prices raised fuel expenses.

First-half revenue increased to 79 trillion rupiah from 52 trillion rupiah a year earlier, the power company said in a statement published in the Bisnis Indonesia newspaper today.

Fuel and lubricant costs jumped to 53 trillion rupiah from 29 trillion rupiah, Listrik Negara said. Surging oil prices eroded the company's margins as crude oil futures jumped 97 percent in the 12 months through June 30.

To contact the reporter on this story: Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at bmoestafa@bloomberg.net