Pertamina to upgrade two lubricant plants<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina said on Wednesday it
\nplanned to invest some US$30 million to upgrade two lubricant
\nplants in the next two years in order to improve their
\nefficiency.<\/p>\n
Pertamina's general manager for lubricant units Poernomo said
\nthat the two lubricant plants, located in Jakarta and Surabaya,
\nneeded upgrading because they were already too old and had high
\noperating costs.<\/p>\n
\"We need to repair the plants ... it's part of our program to
\nreduce the operating costs,\" he told The Jakarta Post on the
\nsidelines of a seminar on automotive fuels and lubricants.<\/p>\n
Pertamina operates three lubricant plants, or lube oil
\nblending plants, with a total processing capacity of 500,000
\nkiloliters.<\/p>\n
Last year, Poernomo said, Pertamina's profit from lubricant
\nsales reached about Rp 500 billion ($54 million).<\/p>\n
According to him, Pertamina controlled about 60 percent of the
\ntotal 600,000 kiloliters of lubricant sales in the country in
\n2001.<\/p>\n
\"This year, we want to at least maintain last year's profit,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
The lubricants market in the country was liberalized by the
\ngovernment last year.<\/p>\n
Separately, Pertamina's spokesman M. Harun told the Post that
\nPertamina was moving ahead to upgrade its Balongan and Cilacap
\nrefineries, in West Java and Central Java respectively, to
\nproduce clean fuel in line with the government's \"Blue Sky\"
\nprogram.<\/p>\n
Through the \"Blue Sky\" program, the government aims to phase
\nout leaded gasoline.<\/p>\n
He said Pertamina had to upgrade its refineries to boost high-
\noctane mogas component production (HOMC), a commodity that is
\nneeded to replace the environmentally unfriendly chemical tetra
\nethyl lead (TEL) as an octane booster in cars.<\/p>\n
At present, the government has implemented an unleaded
\ngasoline policy in several cities such as Jakarta, Cirebon and
\nthe surrounding areas. It expects to implement the policy
\nthroughout the country in 2004.<\/p>\n
Harun said Pertamina would invest about $250 million in
\nupgrading the two refineries.<\/p>\n
For the Balongan refinery upgrade, Pertamina started the
\nengineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) tender last
\nmonth and would announce the winner in June.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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