Indonesia to complete Banten refinery by 2014

Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina and its joint venture partners will start building a 150,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Banten, Java, next year with start-up scheduled for 2014. The new refinery is part of the project to build a 300,000 bpd refinery in Banten Bay. “The refinery will process Iranian Extra Heavy Crude and Iranian Heavy Crude, which would be supplied by the Iranian partner,” Pertamina Processing Director Rukmi Hadihartini said. The refinery will produce 90 and 95 RON gasoline, diesel oil, fuel oil, jet fuel, LPG and coke. Around 70% of the products would be for the Indonesian market, while the rest will be exported, Hadihartini said. Pertamina (40%), National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Co. (40%) and Malaysia’s Petrofield Refining Co. (20%) set up the JV Banten Bay Refinery based on an agreement signed in March 2008. The JV will build the refinery in two phases, first the 150,000 bpd refinery, for which Iran has committed to supply crude. The second phase is expected to expand the capacity to 300,000 bpd when it would also process Saudi Arabian crude. (July 31, 2009)