Pertamina's Dumai coker unit partially running: Report

A coking unit at Pertamina's oil refinery in Dumai, Indonesia, is partially operational after startup problems were overcome Saturday, said a refinery official.

A temporary shutdown of the cracking unit created a surplus of low sulfur waxy residue, or LSWR, in April, and will result in at least 800,000 barrels available for export in May, compared with the typical monthly export allocation of 400,000 bbl.

"The second train at the delayed coker is (also) being started up," said a refinery source Thursday. The first processing train has been running since Monday.

"But the coker is still not running at its full capacity," he said, confirming market speculation that the secondary unit isn't operating at 100% of capacity.

A total of 1 million barrels of LSWR was available for export in April, with the last spot cargo scheduled for loading April 28-30, said an Indonesian source. BP PLC (BP) soaked up most of Dumai's LSWR exports in April.

"They were offering a cargo every five days because of the coker problem," said a trader in Singapore.

The delayed coker is expected to be shut again for a 9-day turnaround in November, the Dumai official said.

Essentially a feedstock, LSWR is cracked into lighter distillates in the coker, and a partial startup of the unit will result in some LSWR available for export. (*)