Pertamina to start RFCC construction

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina expects its RFCC (residue fluid catalytic cracking) refinery unit located in Cilacap, valued at Rp 8 trillion (US$894 million), to be on stream by the end of 2014, a company official said.

The operation of the RFCC refinery is expected to boost total production to 411,000 barrels oil per day (bpod), said Pertamina vice president for corporate communications Mochamad Harun.

?We currently produce about 350,000 bpod from Cilacap. The RFCC refinery is expected to produce 61,000 bpod,? he was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.

Harun said Pertamina targeted higher revenue from the refinery which is being built by state construction company PT Adhi Karya and South Korea-based company Goldstar.

The refinery is built to produce more valuable products, converting petroleum residue not only into premium gasoline, but also high octane fuels and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Pertamina has two high-octane gasoline products, Pertamax at RON 92 and Pertamax Plus at RON 95, while premium gasoline is N 88.

Harun said that Pertamina planned to construct more refineries given the company?s production target of 1.7 million bpod by 2017.

?If we can produce 1.7 million bpod, we would not need fuel imports anymore,? he said.

Pertamina has also several downstream projects to meet the production target, including upgrading the capacity of the Plaju, Balikpapan, Dumai and Balongan refineries. (*)