Cilacap refinery plant to process crude oil from Iran
Monday, June 11 2001 - 01:02 AM WIB
The chairman of Setdco Petroleum, Setiawan Djody, said he had got confirmation from Pertamina's downstream director Ariffi Nawawi about the change of crude oil supplies for Cilacap plant.
"With the change of imported crude oil for Cilacap plant to ILC, it would save the country at least 85 U.S. cents per barrel of imported crude oil. This will eventually improve Pertamina's rating among its suppliers," he said.
He explained that the Cilacap plant consumed about 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of imported crude. Cillacap's total processing capacity is around 325,000 bpd, the largest in the country. Besides imported crude, Cilacap plant also processes domestic crude oil, especially Minas and Duri crude oil belonging to PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia.
As Pertamina imported 120,000 bpd of crude oil for Cilacap plant, the change of crude oil supply to ILC would save it up to US$36.7 million of foreign exchange per annum.
He said he had suggested a change of crude oil supplies from ALC to ILC since 1999 to improve efficiency for Pertamina, but it had never been heard until recently.
"It's all because of the strong grips of Aramco at Pertamina, and therefore, the change in crude oil supply could only be materialized now," he said.
Pertamina spokesman Ridwan Nyak Baik said the change of crude oil supplies from ALC to ILC would not be a problem for Pertamina refinery plant as it was designed to process crude oil from the Middle East.
"So, the refinery plant was not set only for Aramco crude oil. It was just a coincidence that the previous contract was only with Aramco," he said.
Setiawan Djodi said that his Petroleum Trading Company (Setdco Petroleum) had wide trading connection with Iran, but he suggested that Pertamina discuss directly about the importation of ILC with NIOC to avoid paying any intermediary fees or premium to any broker.
He contended that Setdco had no intention of bullying Pertamina to buy its crude oil because Setdco could still sell them to refinery plants in Singapore or Thailand. (*)