Pertamina cancels ethanol production project
Monday, March 2 2015 - 03:51 AM WIB
State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina has decided to back down from an earlier plan to form a joint venture with Celanese Corp to produce fuel grade ethanol from coal.
Senior Vice President for Gas and Power at Pertamina?s Directorate of New and Renewable Energy, Djohardi Angga Kusuma told Petromindo.com that the company?s ?capital expenditure availability currently does not provide enough room? for the company to enter the production side of the business.
Djohardi, however, quickly added that Pertamina would play an off taker role in the project.
He said that Pertamina is currently waiting for the new proposal from Celanese on the off taker mechanism and formula.
Pertamina and Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, signed an MoU in March of 2013 on ethanol project in Indonesia, under which the two firms would form a joint venture for the production of the fuel from coal using the former?s ethanol process technology.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak