Pertamina to build DME plant
Wednesday, June 24 2009 - 05:02 AM WIB
State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina plans to develop a dimethyl ether (DME) plant with a capacity of 800,000 tons per year in Balongan, Indramayu, West Java.
Deputy director for marketing Hanung Budya said Wednesday that the construction of the facility would begin this year, so that it could start operating in 2011.
He said that DME could become a substitute of LPG.
According to Hanung, demand for LPG in 2011 is projected to reach 4.5 million tons, around 800,000 tons of which to be fulfilled among others by DME.
He said that going forward, the company would focus more on DME production because it is cheaper than LPG. The price of DME is about 80% of that of LPG.
Raw material for DME production is natural gas converted into methanol, which he said would entirely be imported among others from Malaysia's Petronas.(Godang)