Pertamina seeks to accelerate Dumai refinery upgrading project

State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina plans to hold talks with Saudi Aramco in October of this year in a bid to accelerate the Dumai refinery upgrading project.

Pertamina Vice President for Corporate Communications Wianda Pusponegoro said in a statement Tuesday that the company hoped to be able to sign a Head of Agreement with Saudi Aramco in October in relation to the Dumai refinery upgrading project.

She added that the basic engineering design for the project is targeted by the end of this year.

Saudi Aramco has signed a MoU with Pertamina to participate in the development of the Dumai and Balongan refinery upgrading projects. But to date there has been no concrete steps taken by Saudi Aramco toward realizing its promised investment in the two projects. The Saudi firm in November of last year also signed a Head of Agreement with Pertamina for a joint development of the Cilacap refinery in Central Java, but no progress has been made. On the contrary, Indonesian interim Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Luhut Panjaitan said recently that Saudi Aramco wanted to reduce its stake in the Cilacap project from 45 percent to 35 percent, possibly related to financial issues.

Wianda said that land requirement for the Dumai project is ready, and that the fuel output will be allocated to meet fuel demand in Sumatra.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak