Axens get contract from Pertamina to study Plaju modernization

By Romel S. Gurky

International firm Axens announced on Tuesday that it had received a contract from tate owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina to conduct a Bankable Feasibility Study for the modernization and capacity expansion of its Plaju refinery located in Palembang, South Sumatra.

The objectives of the project are to improve Plaju refinery?s competitiveness to first quartile standards in terms of gross refinery margin through sour crude processing flexibility to increase the capacity to produce Euro IV standards gasoline and diesel.

Axens will develop all the engineering documentation and economic analysis for the development master plan of the refinery, the firm said.

Indonesia has a crude oil refining capacity of over 1.0 million barrel per day, which is not enough to meet the increasing motor fuels domestic demand and requires imports. In addition, domestic crude oil production is declining which forces a shift to imported crude oils with higher sulfur content.

Pertamina has launched a vast investment operation, which includes the development and modernization of existing refineries. The target is to rapidly match the growing domestic demand and to satisfy the more stringent specifications for clean fuels.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon