Pertamina on the move for US$15 billion project

State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina will team up with several local and foreign petrochemical firms to build the first of three oil refineries in a massive project worth an estimated US$15 billion, an official said. The Industry Ministry’s director for upstream chemical industries, Alexander Barus, said Indonesia would reduce its dependence on foreign refineries to produce naphtha, which is crucial as feedstock for producing high octane gasoline. With this aim in mind, Pertamina has been instructed to team up with other companies to construct three refineries within 10 years, each estimated to cost up to US$5 billion, with a total combined capacity of 900,000 barrels of naphtha per day. The most immediate project would commence this year with the erection of a refinery in Cilegon, Banten. The other two new refineries, each with a production capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, would be built in East Kalimantan’s Bontang and East Java’s Tuban, he said. (April 3, 2010)