Pertamina agrees to supply Chandra Asri Petrochemical Center
Tuesday, July 23 2002 - 02:35 AM WIB
Pertamina?s director for downstream operation Muchsin Bahar said in Jakarta on Monday that the contract was now being negotiated with Chandra Asri, and that the top management of the two companies would further discuss the plan next week.
"For short term, Pertamina is ready to supply light naphtha to Chandra Asri, particularly if we have surplus in stocks," he was quoted as saying.
Chadra Asri has intensively lobbied the government to allow Pertamina to sell light naphtha to the company. At present the petrochemical giant imports the light naphtha requirement from the Middle East under an annual contract worth up to US$200 million.
Currently Pertamina sells its light naphtha production to other local companies which mostly export their production because the state owned oil and gas company?s light naphtha does not meet the specification of Chandra?s petrochemical plant.
Muchsin said that Pertamina plans to build a new refinery plant in Tuban to produce light naphtha of the same specification needed by Chandra. "The construction of the plant will take at least six years," he added.
If the contract is signed, Pertamina will no longer be need to build a new pant to further process the light naphtha to be produced from the planned Tuban refinery. For Chandra, buying the raw material from the local sources will be much more cheaper, he added. (*)