Iran: interest to build 100,000 bpd refinery in Indonesia

(AGI) - Jakarta, Aug. 12 - Iran has expressed interest to build a new oil refinery in Indonesia with a capacity of more than 100,000 bpd as the Indonesian government seeks investors to help develop a large refinery in Bontang, East Kalimantan. "A proposal from Iran, it wants to develop a new refinery. They propose that it (the capacity) can be 100,000 bpd or more, the crude will come from them (Iran)," said Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, IGN Wiratmaja Puja in a statement. The statement said that the proposal from Iran as well as from other countries such as Kuwait and China for the Bontang refinery project are still being evaluated by the government. The government is offering the Bontang oil refinery project to potential investors, in a marketing process that is expected to be concluded in September, the statement said. The planned Bontang refinery project forms part of efforts by the government to build new refineries and expand existing ones to help cut down the country's fuel oil imports. The government initially planned to build a 300,000 bpd refinery in Bontang, which is targeted to be completed in 2022 through a public private partnership scheme. But Puja said that the government is also evaluating whether it will proceed with the initial PPP scheme in the project. Meanwhile, President Director of state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina, Dwi Soetjipto said that the government is likely to change the scheme to help accelerate the Bontang project, assigning Pertamina to develop the Bontang refinery in partnership with other investors including possibly Iran. Such model has been applied in the planned development of the estimated US$13 billion Tuban oil refinery, in East Java, where Pertamina teams up with Russia's giant Rosneft. (AGI) .