REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BALIK PAPAN -- State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina said it will expand its processing capacity by 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day by the end of 2019 from 1 million barrels at present.

Pertamina's Processing Director Rahmat Hardadi said the additional capacity will be contributed by the Balikpapan refinery from its first phase of refinery development master plan (RDMP) project.

"By the end of 2019, the Balikpapan RDMP project will be operational expanding the processing capacity of the Balikpapan refinery to 360,000 barrels from 260,000 barrels of crude oil per day at present," Rahmat said here on Thursday.

Altogether, the RDMP project would expand the total processing capacity of Pertamina to 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day by the end of 2019, he added.

He said in the early phase, 60 percent of the feed stock in crude oil would be the Expo type of Russia and 40 percent would be the Azeri type of Azerbaizan.

"Later on we will seek crude oil of the sour type which is available in abundance from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Africa," he said.

He said the second phase of RDPM project of the Balikpapan refinery will start in 2020 to be completed in 2022-2023.

Originally , the RDMP project was awarded to a Japanese contractor JX Nippon, but failure in reaching an agreement, Pertamina decided to carry it out itself.

"We will show that we are competent in carrying out this big project," Rahmat said.

The first phase of the RDMP project is estimated to cost US$2.6 billion and the second phase to cost around US$2.2 billion.

Meanwhile, in mid 2018, Pertamina is to finish the construction of the Cilacap blue sky refinery (PLBC) project in Central Java.

The PLBC project would change the Premium gasoline into Pertamax , which has a higher octane content with a production capacity of 91,000 barrels per day.

"That means we still have two years to finish the construction of PLBC to turn out a higher quality products for the people," Rahmat said.

A new oil refinery project in Tuban with a processing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day is expected to come on stream by the end of 2021.

The Tuban oil refinery, which will be built in cooperation between Pertamina and Russian company, Rosneft, on a 55:45 share split, would bring Pertamina's total processing capacity to 1.4 million barrels of crude oil per day.

In 2022, the RDMP project of the Cilacap refinery is to come on line increasing the processing capacity of the Cilacap refinery by 20,000 barrels to 370,000 barrels per day bringing the company's total processing capacity to 1.42 million barrels per day.

The Cilacap RDMP project would be carried out in cooperation between Pertamina and Saudi Aramco on a 55:45 share split.

"The capacity expansion of the Cilacap refinery is relatively small but the quality of the products will improve much," Rahmat said.

In 2023, a number of new oil refining projects would come on line including the RDMP projects of the Dumai oil refinery in Riau and the Balongan refinery in West Java with a total processing capacity of 280,000 barrels per day and a new refinery in Bontang of East Kalimantan, with a processing capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The three project would further increase the processing capacity of Pertamina to 2 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2023.

"In 2023, a new era of self sufficiency in oil fuel supply would begin . The country might even in a position to exports refined oil products to other ASEAN countries," Rahmat said.

In the period of 2025-2030 , two more units of oil refinery with processing capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day are to come on stream bringing Pertamina's total processing capacity to 2.6 billion barrels per day, he said.

The locations of the two refineries could be in Arun of Aceh, Karimum of Riau and Lombok of Wesdt Nusa Tenggara.

"The demography and geographical condition are factors to be considered in selecting the locations for the projects," Rahmat said.

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