Fire extinguished at Pertamina’s Balongan refinery

Indonesia

BALONGAN, March 31, 2021 – Indonesian NOC Pertamina has succeeded in putting out a major fire at its Balongan refinery on West Java, the company said on Wednesday.

The fire erupted after midnight local time on Monday at the 125,000-bpd facility, eventually engulfing four storage units.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Pertamina said it was preparing to restart the plant once it is safe to do so. The facility was undergoing a cooling down process and will be inspected before operations relaunch, potentially in four or five days.

Only 7% of the refinery’s storage capacity was impacted in the blaze, the company said.