Pertamina postpones Balikpapan CDU turnaround

Indonesia’s Pertamina has postponed its planned turnaround at its 60,000 barrel per day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at Balikpapan refinery in East Kalimantan from October to sometime in 2010, a senior official said. “We are rescheduling the turnaround,” Rukmi Hadihartini, Pertamina’s processing director, said. Pertamina had originally planned to shut the CDU for 20-25 days in October. Indonesia has seven oil refineries, all owned and operated by Pertamina, with a total capacity of 1.05 million bpd. Pertamina has said it will also delay turnarounds at its 230,000 bpd CDU at Cilacap refinery and the 25,000 bpd CDU at the Plaju refinery to 2010. They had originally been scheduled for March 2009, but were delayed because of the presidential elections that were held in July. (October 5, 2009)