PIM starts operating after a six-month idle

After more than six-month in idle condition, state-owned fertilizer company PT Pupuk Iskandar Muda (PIM) in Aceh conducted on Thursday a start-up to its ammonia unit following the resumption of natural gas supplies from ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia (EMOI) Inc on Wednesday afternoon.

PIM president Hidayat Nyakman said it would need a number of days to start-up its urea fertilizer plant.

"We hope, we will start producing urea, next week," he told Bisnis Indonesia daily.

He said ExxonMobil was supplying a total of 55 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas to PIM, or 95 percent of the fertilizer company's total demand for natural gas.

PIM has production capacity of 330,000 tons of ammonia and 590,000 tons of urea per annum. Most of PIM's output is sold to domestic market.

Aceh has another fertilizer company PT ASEAN Aceh Fertilizer (AAF) that has equal production capacity with PIM. However, most of AAF output is sold in the export market, especially to the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. (*)