Pertamina eyes overseas refining

Indonesia’s Pertamina hopes to close a deal with an Indian refiner in an effort to start overseas refining, company CEO Dwi Soetjipto said late on Monday.

Seeking to use an overseas refinery for its monthly shipments of Iraqi crude, Pertamina said India was the logical choice “because its geographic location is good.”

Indonesia imports close to 1 million from Iraq each month, sourced from a variety of fields. A third of that volume – around 290,000 barrels – is purchased from the ExxonMobil-operated West Qurna-1, in which Pertamina holds a 10% stake.
While Soetjipto declined to reveal who the company’s Indian counterpart would be, he did say Pertamina would work to reach an agreement before the end of 2016.

No new refinery has been built in Indonesia since 1994, and the country’s domestic refining capacity of some 1 million bpd cannot meet demand. Pertamina is expected to announce the winning bid for the 300,000-bpd Tuban refinery project on East Java shortly.

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