Pertamina flying solo on refinery upgrade

Pertamina has decided not to co-operate with Saudi Aramco on the upgrade of the Balongan refinery in an effort to speed up the work, company officials said on Monday.

Citing the urgency of the upgrade, which will increase refining capacity to around 240,000 bpd, Pertamina CEO Dwi Soetjipto said that the “process of forming a partnership was taking a long time.”

Soetjipto also said the company’s investment in the project would be “less than initially planned” and contingent on Pertamina’s “financial position.” The upgrade’s first stage is valued at USD 1.2 billion.

The company’s petrochemicals and refinery megaprojects director, Rachmad Hardadi, said that while Saudi Aramco had “accepted” Pertamina’s decision, they might still be brought on board for the second stage of the upgrade.

Hardadi also said the company was in the process of selecting licensors for the Cilacap and Tuban refinery projects, which will be announced in April and June, respectively.

“We will select companies with the best proven conversion technologies. We will consider several factors in their presentations, including consumption utilities, operational efficiency and maintenance simplicity before deciding which company should be the winner,” Hardadi said.