Pertamina to start Balikpapan refinery upgrade project soon
Wednesday, April 20 2016 - 06:35 AM WIB
State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina has decided to proceed on its own the planned upgrade of its Balikpapan fuel refinery in East Kalimantan after Japan?s JX Nippon Oil and Energy Co backed down from the project, saying that groundbreaking for the project will be held in the near future.
?We plan to hold groundbreaking of the RDMP project in the near future. We have decided to do it by ourselves,? said Pertamina President Director Dwi Soetjipto on Tuesday, referring to Refinery Development Master Plan.
He added, however, that the company is still open to the possibility of a new partner participating in the project.
Dwi said that while has company has sufficient cash to finance the project, it will seek external funding. He said that about 60 percent funding requirement for the project will come from external sources. The company has allocated $2.6 billion for the project.
Dwi said that the Balikpapan refinery upgrade project will be carried out in two phases, targeted to be completed in 2019. The first phase is to increase production capacity of crude distillate unit to 360 bpd from 260 bpd. The second phase covers flexibility and fuel products quality from Euro II standard to Euro IV.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak