Pertamina ships 1st propylene cargo from Balongan

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina has shipped the first cargo of propylene at the volume of 1,500 tons from its petrochemical plant in Balongan to PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk in West Java.

Pertamina Processing Director Chrisna Damayanto launched the first cargo within the MT Gas Sumatera ship in the jetty of Propylene RU VI Balongan on Wednesday.

The petrochemical plant - residue catalytic cracking (RCC) Off Gas to Propylene Project (ROPP) plant, which has been in operation in Balongan since 14th January 2013, produced the highly valued propylene from gas wastes resulted from its residue catalytic cracking (RCC). It has a total production capacity of 179,000 tons per year.

The development of the plant required a total investment of about US$238 million. It was constructed by the EPC contractor, PT Rekayasa Industri and Toyo Engineering Corporation.

?The propylene production from Balongan will reduce the propylene import which tends to increase due to rising demand. This should be a milestone for our national petrochemical industry,? said Chrisna Damayanto.

Pertamina has targeted to have a market share of about 80 percent at the domestic market by the year 2025. It is optimistic that it can realize it through cooperations with Indonesian private companies or multinational firms.

Previously, Pertamina has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chandra Asri Petrochemical as the basis for their final agreement to set up a joint venture to produce propylene with a total capacity of 250,000 tons per year in Balongan.

Pertamina has also signed similar agreements with three multinational petrochemical firms, namely, SK Global Chemical, PTT Global Chemical, and Mitsubishi Corporation, which are all main producers of petrochemical products in Asia.

One of them will be chosen as its partner in developing naphta cracker plant, which is planned to start operation in 2017.

Pertamina has targeted to get a market share of 30 percent by the year 2017 when the total market value will amount to US$30 billion.

Currently, the domestic petrochemical market has a total value of about US$5 billion, of which only 10 percent controlled by Pertamina.

Editing by Benget Besalicto Tnb.