(Repeats item issued late Wednesday)
* Fuel price controls have cost Pertamina more than $1 bln
* Chief executive pushed for reform, replaced after 13 months
* Government prioritises efforts to prop up consumption
By Fergus Jensen and Agustinus Beo Da Costa
JAKARTA, April 25 (Reuters) - When Pertamina's former chief executive, Elia Massa Manik, was fired on Friday, he became the state energy company's shortest-serving boss in more than a decade.
His expulsion after 13 months followed repeated clashes with the government over fuel price controls estimated to have cost Pertamina $1.4 billion from January to September last year.
Manik's firing and the dismissal of four other executives, along with Pertamina's fuel sales losses, starkly illustrate the competing priorities of the state-run firm.
While the government wants the company to improve profits by reviving Indonesia's flagging oil output and building refineries to cut record fuel imports, it also wants Pertamina to keep fuel affordable and politically palatable.
"As a state-owned enterprise, Pertamina's task is not just to seek profit but also to serve the needs of the community," Deputy State Owned Enterprise Minister Harry Fajar Sampurno said in a statement on Friday.
Manik, though, had not "obeyed" the wishes of State Owned Enterprise Minister Rini Soemarno on fuel prices, trying to plead the case for higher prices directly with President Joko Widodo, according to Inas Nasrullah Zubir, a member of a Parliamentary commission overseeing energy.
Manik sent a statement by text message on Saturday declining to comment on his dismissal, but saying Pertamina executives needed to ensure the oil company was not "left behind" while working to meet Indonesia's energy security goals.
Questions to the deputy energy minister on the shake-up were not answered.
Pertamina dominates Indonesia's energy industry. It has a virtual monopoly on petroleum imports and retail sales, and owns and operates the country's main refineries.
'BURDEN ON PERTAMINA'
The company estimates it would need $115 billion over the next decade to realise Widodo's plans to make Indonesia self-sufficient in energy.
Manik had said in December a single price nationwide for "Premium" (RON 88) gasoline and "Solar" diesel could cost Pertamina losses of 3.8 trillion rupiah ($274 million) a year.
"This is a burden on Pertamina (and) so far there has been no discussion of compensation," he told parliament.
The government then added to Pertamina's difficulties this year, saying fuel prices would not change until after the 2019 elections, and extended price controls to all retail fuels.