Pertamina plans to build lubricant plant overseas

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina (Persero) plans to build a lubricant oil blending plant overseas as partt of its plan of expanding its lubricant market in Asia and Pacific.

Pertamina's spokesman Mochammad Harun said in Jakarta on Thursday that the company had yet to decide on the location of the plant but it would be located either in China or Japan. ?We will see the market potentials first before deciding the location,? he added.

Lube product and business development unit manager Andria Nusa said that with the operation of the overseas plant, Pertamina would be able to reduce shipment costs for the sales of its lubricant products. ?We hope we can increase our market share in the world to 5 percent in 10 years,? he added.

He said that investment for the planned lubricant plant would be lower than that of the company?s lubricant plant in Gresik, East Java, because its production capacity would be a half of that in Gresik.

?The blending plant in Gresik has a capacity of 110,000 kl a year and its investment is about $28 million. So the investment for the overseas plant will be lower than that,? he added.

At present, Pertamina produces about 500,000 kl of lubricant, or one-third of the national production which reaches about 1.5 million kl, while the total consumption in the country is about 750,000 kl. (*)