Govt prepares construction of three oil refineries

The government will speed up the preparation for the construction of three oil refineries in the country in order to be able to reduce the country?s reliance on imported fuel products, Investor Daily reported on Friday.

Energy and Mineral Resources Vice Minister Susilo Siswoutomo said in Jakarta on Thursday that one of the oil refineries would be built with the state budgetand that the ministry and Pertamina would soon start discussion on the construction of it which would be assigned the tasks of processing crude oil of about 33,000 bpd to be imported from Iraq. He said that the government would spend up to Rp 250 billion from the state budget to build the refinery to process the Iraqi crude oil.

However, Vice President for Communication of Pertamina, Ali Mundakir, said the 33,000 bpd of the Basrah light to be imported from Iraq would not be processed in a local refinery. ?The import contract for the Iraqi crude oil is only for 2013, from June to December,? he added.

He did not mention where the Iraqi crude would be processed. Ali, however, said that the Iraqi crude oil would be used only for standby reserves. The contract for the Iraqi crude oil imports was signed during the visit of Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa to Iraq recently.

About the plan to build other two refineries in cooperation with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Ali said that it was still under feasibility study. ?The government is conducting a feasibility study on the refinery to be built in cooperation with Kuwait. The feasibility study for the refinery to be built in cooperation with Saudi Arabia has been completed,? he added. The two refineries will have capacity of 30,000 bpd, respectively. (*)