Ministry suspends tender of Maluku mini refinery project

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has suspended the current tender process for a planned mini oil refinery project in Maluku Province, Kontan reported on Thursday.

?The tender process has been put on hold,? said Director General of Oil and Gas at the ministry IGN Wiratmaja Puja to the paper, but did not disclose the reason for the suspension.

Wiratmja said in February that that the winning bidder for the planned Maluku refinery project, which will have a capacity of 3,000 bpd, was expected to be announced in May of this year.

The directorate general said that five of the seven participants in the PQ tender have passed to enter the next bidding stage. The five are PT Alam Bersami Sentosa; PT Tri Wahana Universal; consortium of PT Remaja Bangun Kencana, Changling Petrochemical, and Engineering Design Co Ltd; PT. Aliansi Lintas Teknologi; and consortium of PT Harmoni Drilling Services, and Oceanus Co Ltd.

The government plans to develop mini refineries in eight clusters to help improve the cost efficiency of marginal oil fields located in remote regions.

The eight clusters include Cluster I-North Sumatra (Rantau and Pangkalan Susu), Cluster II-Selat Panjang Malaka (EMP Malacca Strait and Petroselat), Cluster III-Riau (Tonga, Siak, Pendalian, Langgak, West Area, Kisaran), Cluster IV-Jambi (Palmerah, Mengoepeh, Lemang and Karang Agung), Cluster V-Sumatera Selatan (Merangin II and Ariodamar), Cluster VI-Kalimantan Selatan (Tanjung), Cluster VII-North Kalimantan (Bunyu, Sembakung, Mamburungan and Pamusian Juwata), and Cluster VIII-Maluku (Oseil and Bula).

The mini refinery will have maximum capacity of 20,000 bpd, and investment for 10,000-bpd refinery is estimated at around Rp 2.5 trillion. (*)