Bidding for Balongan catalyst supplies slated for early next year
Saturday, November 11 2000 - 01:00 PM WIB
State oil and gas company Pertamina will invite tenders for the contract to supply catalysts for its Balongan refinery in West Java in February next year.
Pertamina's president Baihaki Hakim said last Thursday during a meeting with the House of Representatives' Commission VIII, which oversees mines and energy affairs, that the tender participants would compete with American oil and gas company Chevron, the current supplier of catalyst to the refinery.
He said Chevron had been supplying catalyst to the refinery since it started operation in 1995 but Pertamina decided to invite other potential suppliers of catalysts for the refinery to reduce its dependence on Chevron.
"If we continue to rely on Chevron, we shall be made a play thing," Baihaki told legislators.
He said Pertamina's decision to hold tenders for the contract to supply catalysts for the Balongan refinery also followed the request made by the former House of Representatives last year.
Baihaki noted in the past, Pertamina chose Chevron as the supplier of catalyst to the refinery because the residue catalyst cracking unit installed at the refinery used Chevron's technology. Catalyst is a chemical product used to clear metal elements from crude oil during refining process.
He said Chevron well knew the characteristic of the Duri crude oil, which is used to produce fuel at the Balongan refinery, because they had used the type of crude oil between 30 and 40 years at its refinery in Richmond, the United States.
The Duri crude oil is produced at the Duri oil field in Riau, which is operated by PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, a joint venture of Chevron and Texaco, also of the United States.
Baihaki said there were four catalyst producers interested in supplying catalysts to the Balongan refinery. They are Criterion, which is a unit of Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell, Nippon Ketjen, Topsoe and CCIC.
Pertamina asked them to test their products as a requirement to participate in the bidding for the contract to supply catalysts to the refinery.
The four catalyst producers agreed to carry out the so-called "fully aging test" on their products for one year from February this year until February next year
However, three producers - Topsoe, Nippon Ketjen and CCIC - had notified Pertamina that they failed to "meet targets" during the test.
According to Baihaki, the remaining catalyst producer Criterion told Pertamina on Sept. 6 this year it was still committed to continue the fully aging test until February next year.
"Three competitors have failed and dropped out. We hope Criterion, which is backed up by Shell, will succeed. Let's wait until February 2001," Baihaki said. (Epin and Godang)