Sino Prosper to invest US$50m in Indonesian oil, bitumen project

Sino Prosper Holdings, a Hong Kong- listed energy and resources company, said it plans to invest US$50 million in a refined heavy oil and bitumen project in Indonesia, Hong Kong daily The Standard reported.

The company's executive director Tang Yan-tian said capacity in the plant's first phase is expected to be at least 1.2 million tonnes of heavy oil per year, and will reach 500 million tonnes after five years. Production is expected to start in mid-2007.

Sino Prosper invested in the energy project through its 65 percent-owned venture PT Sino Prosper Indocarbon. The venture was granted exploration rights for the Buton Bitumen Mine, covering a total area of 24,382 hectares, in September last year.

Tang said the venture is in talks with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia's biggest oil refiner, and China's Ministry of Communications to supply 200,000 tonnes of bitumen modifier a year. It signed a contract with PetroChina last year to supply one million tonnes of heavy oil. The international price of bitumen modifier is around US$600 to US$800 per tonnes, while heavy oil is only US$300 to US$320 per tonne.(*)