Libya?s NOC plans $13 billion investment in RI refineries

Libyan oil company National Oil Corporation (NOC) is considering a plan to invest in the construction of two oil refineries in Indonesia, company chairman Shokri Ghanem says.

Ghanem told reporters as quoted by The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Thursday that his company wanted to become a shareholder in the project as well as a future supplier of crude oil for the refineries.

The two refineries will be located in Bojanegara, Banten province, and another in Balongan, West Java. The combined investment value for the two refineries is estimated at US$13 billion.

?We could come to a conclusion and an agreement soon to work together here in Indonesia,? Ghanem said after meeting Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh at the latter?s office.

Darwin said Indonesia was not only targeting to achieve an oil production rate of 1 million barrels per day (bpd), but also to create the infrastructure needed to refine crude oil.

?Otherwise we will still be importing," the minister said, adding that Indonesia was currently imported 300,000 bpd of oil. ?We are still very much dependent on international oil prices,? he added. (*)