Bahlil: Russia Interested in Building Refinery and Oil Tanks in Indonesia
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) is maturing plans for the construction of an oil refinery and storage facilities following initial discussions on oil and gas cooperation with Russia.
Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia stated that Russia has expressed interest in building an oil refinery and storage facilities as an effort to strengthen the nation’s long-term energy security. Moreover, Indonesia could reduce its dependence on imported fuel oil (BBM).
“Yes, as I mentioned at the palace yesterday, following the President’s directive, I was asked to follow up on the meeting between the two leaders, President Prabowo and President Putin, and in my meeting with Russia’s Minister of Energy and Government, it was agreed that we will receive support from Russia,” he revealed on Friday (17/4/2026).
The construction of this additional infrastructure is considered urgent given the current national oil consumption of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), while domestic production is only around 600,000 bpd.
Through the addition of refinery capacity and storage facilities, the government hopes to mitigate the impact of global energy market volatility on domestic supply availability.
“Now, for petrol, we import it; our total consumption is nearly 39-40 million kilolitres (kl). From that, our domestic production before the Balikpapan RDMP was 14.3 million kl. The addition of the Balikpapan RDMP is 5.6-5.7 million kl, so almost 20 million kilolitres, meaning our imports are down to 50%,” he added.
The scale of the refinery and storage capacity currently under discussion is said not to be as large as the Tuban project but still plays a crucial role in national supply flexibility.
Nevertheless, the new project plan will use a different scheme from the development of the Tuban Refinery, which is a collaboration between PT Pertamina (Persero) and Rosneft Oil Company.
The options for the scheme to be used are still being refined between government-to-government (G2G) or business-to-business (B2B) mechanisms.
“That was one of the points we discussed yesterday, that indeed there are some of their investments ready to enter, but the finalisation awaits 1-2 more rounds with us, specifically regarding the refinery and storage. We will report it later,” he revealed.