Indonesian oil and gas shipping firm Berlian Laju Tanker (BLT) said its cost-efficiency efforts had helped to cushion the company from further drops in financial performance in the third quarter, local reports said.

The company managed to reduce administration costs to $1.28m in the third quarter from $2.89m in the previous corresponding period, director Anthony Budiawan said.

“We have been able to reduce administration costs – including vessel crew salaries - only to $1.28m. We have also closed down some of our subsidiaries overseas,” he said, adding that the firm had slashed the number of its subsidiaries from 100 to 25 over the past years.  

Berlian Laju Tanker completed its corporate restructuring last year, leaving only two chemical tankers and three gas tankers in possession. In the third quarter of this year, the company managed to add three more tankers to its fleet.

For the first nine months of the year, BLT saw revenue plunge to $14m from $207m previously.

BLT would also continue to rely more on time-charters, director Romanus Tri Wibowo said. “If we charter the vessels, we could make a daily profit and we also would not need to be concerned about bunker costs because it would become the renter’s responsibility,” Romanus said.

Source: seatrade-maritime.com