Iran, China, Indonesia finalize refinery deal

Iran, China, and Indonesia have reached a final agreement on building a refinery in East Java to process 150,000 barrels per day of heavy crude oil, a report said on Thursday.

The joint venture plan envisages Iran supplying feedstock and partially financing the project and China providing 85 percent of the funds, head of the Iranian Oil Exporters Union Hassan Khosrojerdi said as quoted by Iran?s Presstv.ir.

?Negotiations are underway with Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh for supply of heavy crude feedstock under a long-term contract,? Khosrojerdi said.

Joint cooperation protocols for providing heavy crude by Iran were signed during last month?s visit to Tehran by an Indonesian trade delegation.

Khosrojerdi said there are further plans to build five refineries for processing gas condensates in Indonesia by the three countries' private sector.

The six projects, including the oil refinery, are expected to need $3.5 billion of investment, he added.

Indonesia is building four refineries, each with capacities ranging between 300,000 bpd and 350,000 bpd, to cut its dependency on oil product imports.

Total refining capacity will rise to 1.68 million barrels per day by 2022 from about 800,000 bpd now when all the four refineries come on stream.

Last month, Indonesian Energy Minister Sudirman Said met Zangeneh and two sides agreed on crude oil supplies by Iran and cooperation in engineering and technical services.

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economics Sofyan Djalil also traveled to Tehran and met several Iranian officials. Iran's Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said the two countries reached a final agreement on building 48 power plants in the Southeast Asian country. (*)