CPC proposes to move refinery and cracker to Indonesia

Taiwan’s state-owned oil, gas and petrochemical company CPC Corp. has formulated a plan to transplant a petroleum refinery and its No.5 naphtha cracker from Kaoshiung in Taiwan to Indonesia, to form the basis for an integrated petroleum-refining and petrochemical-production complex there. High-ranking Taiwanese and Indonesian government officials are believed to have already conducted talks and completed the inspection of candidate sites. The mutually beneficial plan stems from CPC’s contractual agreement to move or dismantle its domestic No.5 naphtha cracker by 2015, because of the cracker’s location near residential areas, dovetailing with the wishes of Indonesia to overcome its hurdles in integrating its petroleum refining and petrochemical production. Eyeing strong demand in the ASEAN region, CPC is proposing to create a large-scale complex in Indonesia centered on a 100,000-200,000 barrel per day refinery and a naphtha cracker with a capacity to produce 730,000 tons per year of ethylene. The project cost is said to be in the range of US$7 billion. (April 21, 2010)