Pertamina plans to new refinery facilities

State oil and gas firm Pertamina is considering to set up two new oil refineries to supply fuel products in Sumatra and the eastern Indonesia regions, whose fuel needs had been supplied by refineries in Balikpapan and Java.

"But we have not decided where to set up the refineries. One may be set up in Tuban, East Java, to supply fuel to eastern Indonesia," Pertamina president Widya Purnama told Petromindo.com over the weekend.

Widya added that Pertamina was now ready to develop a refinery in Tuban in cooperation with China firm Sinopec. The facility will be dedicated for the supply of fuel in fuel hungry East Java.

He said that Pertamina officials would visit Sinopec headquarters sometime next month to finalize the plan. "Sinopec had conducted study in Tuban last month, it seemed that they're interested."

Iran was also interested on Tuban refinery project, but they would limit itself to provide the feed stock.

Pertamina will continue to seek cooperations with other oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Libya to allow their crude oil be processed by Pertamina refineries and later be exported to China and Southeas Asian countries.

Elsewhere, Widya said that Pertamina would increase the capacity of the Balongan refinery facility by the end of next year from 250,000 bopd to 350,000 bopd to meed soaring demand in the West Java. (dino)