Indonesia Pushes Refinery Upgrades to Meet Demand and Standards

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--With a crude-oil refining capacity of more than 1 million barrels per day, Indonesia still is unable to meet domestic demand and must import fuel. The country's domestic oil production is declining, which has forced a shift to imported oil products that have higher sulfur content than locally produced crude.

In response to these problems, the state-owned oil utility Pertamina (Jakarta) selected Axens (Paris, France) to conduct a bankable feasibility study for the modernization and capacity expansion of the 135,000 barrel-per-day Plaju Refinery in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Pertamina has mobilized a mega-investment operation to develop and modernize existing refineries to match the growing domestic demand and meet the more stringent specifications for clean fuels.

The objectives of the Plaju project are to improve the refinery's competitiveness; to rank it in the global first-quartile standards in terms of gross refinery margin through sour-crude processing flexibility; and to increase its capacity to produce Euro IV-standards gasoline and diesel.

Axens will develop all the engineering documentation and economic analysis for the refinery's development master plan.

For related information, see October 9, 2013, article - Indonesia's PT Pertamina Plans $7 Billion in Refinery Upgrades.

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