Govt meets investors in Singapore for planned fuel refinery project

Senior government officials are scheduled to meet with 20 oil companies in Singapore today at a roadshow arranged by the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to seek investors for the development of a planned Rp 90 trillion fuel refinery in the country, reports said on Tuesday.

Among of the investors invited to the meeting include Saudi Aramco, Bisnis Indonesia daily said.

The paper quoted Vice Minister of Finance Bambang P.S. Brodjonegoro as saying the government plans to develop a fuel refinery with a capacity of 300,000 bpd in a bid to reduce fuel import.

Giving the government?s limited funding capacity, private investors are invited to develop the project under a public private partnership scheme, under which the government will be in charge of providing the necessary land, while the private investors in charge of financing and constructing the refinery. He added that the government would also provide incentives to the investors including a tax holiday.

Bambang said that the planned refinery should be integrated with the petrochemical industry so that the investors would be able to enjoy greater margins, and thus don?t have to request for excessive tax incentives from the government.

Bambang declined to disclose the location of the project. ?Total investment is about Rp 90 trillion excluding for the petrochemical refinery,? he said. (*)