Indonesia’s oil refineries have higher risk of suffering damages

Compared to those in other countries, Indonesian oil refinery facilities have higher risk of suffering damages because most of them have been overly operated, according to state owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina.

Pertamina president director Ariffi Nawawi said in Jakarta last week that the Indonesian oil refinery plants had a greater chance of suffering damages because the plants were forced to operate all the time along the year.

“Technically, an oil refinery plant should be stopped from operation for at least 36 days a year,” Ariffi was quoted by Kompas daily on Monday. “In Singapore, an oil refinery plant is operated only for 216 days a year or having a break for at least 114 days,” he added.

Pertamina’s boss was commenting on the public criticism over the stoppage of the operation of the country’s major oil refinery plant Balongan Refinery in West Java. The plant has been stopped from operation for a few weeks due to damage in its oil processing equipment.

According to him, although it is technically wrong, Pertamina has not much choice but to operate its refinery plants along the year in order to meet the high fuel demand at home. The demand for fuel is so great while the capacities of the existing plants are still limited, he added.

There are several refinery plants in Indonesia, the Pangkalan Brandan, Dumai, Sungai Pakning, Musi, Cilacap, Balik Papan, Balongan, Cepu and Kasim plants. Indonesia still import 20 percent of the domestic fuel demand, because the existing plants are capable only of providing 80 percent of the fuel needs. (*)