Pertamina overhauls Balikpapan refinery

Balikpapan oil refinery in East Kalimantan Friday began undergoing turnaround as state oil and gas firm Pertamina feels sure that other refining facilities will be able to supply enough fuel to the domestic market in the coming months, Pertamina president director Baihaki Hakim said.

The facility, which has three units, will be overhauled for two months, Baihaki told reporters Friday. It has capacity to process 260,000 barrels per day (BPD) of crude.

?We shut down Balikpapan refinery from today,? he said, adding that it was according to Pertamina?s initial plan.

Baihaki said that crude transportation from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to Indonesia had not been disrupted since the Iraqi war broke out about two weeks ago.

Ten days ago, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro ordered Pertamina to suspend plans to overhaul oil refineries, and make sure that they operate at full capacity. The ongoing Iraqi war had been feared to disrupt crude supply from the Middle East, for Cilacap and Balongan refineries on Java Island, whose technology fits with Arabian Light Crude.

Balongan, which has capacity to distill 125,000 BPD of crude, may undergo turnaround in October of this year, Baihaki said. Pertamina had earlier planned to overhaul it in August.

Indonesia has nine refineries, all state-owned and operated by Pertamina, with combined capacity of around one million BPD. Cilacap is the largest among them. (*).