Tender for mini oil refinery projects to start in October: Official

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources plans to gradually start tender for the construction mini oil refineries each with capacity of less than 20,000 bpd in October of this year.

?The tender will probably be opened in October, November. Before the end of the year,? said Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources IGN Wiratmaja Puja said in a statement Friday.

He said that the tender process will be held gradually. He added so far, there has been good response from investors for the mini refinery projects.

The statement said that the mini refinery projects will be developed in eight clusters including Cluster I-North Sumatra (Rantau and Pangkalan Susu), Cluster II-Selat Panjang Malaka (EMP Malacca Strait and Petroselat), Cluster III-Riau (Tonga, Siak, Pendalian, Langgak, West Area, Kisaran), Cluster IV-Jambi (Palmerah, Mengoepeh, Lemang and Karang Agung), Cluster V-Sumatera Selatan (Merangin II and Ariodamar), Cluster VI-Kalimantan Selatan (Tanjung), Cluster VII-North Kalimantan (Bunyu, Sembakung, Mamburungan and Pamusian Juwata), and Cluster VIII-Maluku (Oseil and Bula).

According to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No 22/2016, the mini refinery projects in the eight clusters will be either assigned to state-owned enterprises or private investors through tender to be financed by the state or business entity.

The statement said that private investors are welcome to build mini refinery outside the eight clusters.

While crude requirement for the refineries in the eight clusters will come from production sharing contractors located within or around the respective cluster, the crude for refineries outside the eight clusters can either come from the output of contractors located within or outside the clusters, or import.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak