Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas enterprise, Pertamina signed an agreement with CPC Corporation, Taiwan’s state-owned oil & gas company to develop a USD 8 billion petrochemical facility in Balongan, West Java. The facility, which will produce 1 million tons of ethylene per year, is scheduled to start commercial operations in 2026.
Pertamina and CPC have been engaged in talks about the project since 2018 and they completed a feasibility study in 2019. Both of them will contribute 45% each of the project’s investment, and the remainder will be financed by outside investors.
It represents an expansion of Pertamina’s Balongan oil refinery. Pertamina is currently expanding the capacity of the Balongan refinery to increase its fuel output capacity by 20% to 150,000 barrels per day by 2022, excluding petrochemicals production. Pertamina is also working to expand six other refineries to double its capacity to around 2 million barrels a day by 2026.
(Sources: ChannelNews Asia; Jakarta Post; CHEManager International)
