Energy Efficiency: Pertamina's RUU III Plaju Refinery Wins PROPER Gold 2025
PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional Refinery Unit III Plaju (RUU III Plaju) has received the 2025 Programme for Assessing Company Performance Ratings (PROPER) award from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) with a Gold ranking. This award serves as recognition of the company’s commitment to sustainable environmental management.
The award was presented directly by the Minister of Environment and Forestry/Head of the Environment and Forestry Management Agency, Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, during the PROPER Environmental Awards event at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII), Jakarta, on Tuesday (7/4/2026).
Hanif explained that this year’s PROPER award is mandated by Law No. 70 of 2024. In the coming year, the assessment will become a state obligation in supervising all business units across the country.
“At the very least, there are 74,000 business units that possess Environmental Management Efforts and Environmental Monitoring Efforts documents (UKL-UPL) and Environmental Impact Analysis (AMDAL). This is an obligation for us to monitor routinely every six months,” he stated.
RUU III Plaju processes crude oil into Fuel Oil (BBM), non-BBM products, and Petrochemicals. The refinery’s capacity is 126,200 Barrels of Crude Oil per Day, with total production amounting to 4,757,361 tonnes of oil equivalent in 2021.
RUU III Plaju successfully achieved energy efficiency of 125,883.79 Giga Joules through the Gas Burner Redesign Programme Type TMC-ML-250 as an Energy Efficiency Effort for Furnace CDU III (Green). Water efficiency was also accomplished through the Neutralisation and Reutilisation of Equilibrated Water Flow via pH Conditioning-Based Processing as Fulfilment of Make-Up Supply for the Polypropylene Unit, amounting to 13,640 cubic metres.
Finally, the Implementation of Hydrocarbon Reflow and Reutilisation of Heating Oil for Reducing Exhaust Gas Emissions during Catalyst Replacement in the Polymerisation Unit. This innovation can reduce emissions by 133.41 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
For information, the PROPER award is routinely held as an effort to enhance companies’ compliance with environmental regulations. The award is given using several parameters. PROPER is a public disclosure programme for environmental assessments.
This programme serves as a complement that can synergise with other compliance instruments. With this programme, efforts to improve environmental quality can be carried out more efficiently and effectively.
The PROPER assessment criteria are divided into two categories: compliance and criteria exceeding what is required by regulations (beyond compliance).
Compliance criteria are based on the company’s efforts to meet several aspects, including control of water pollution, maintenance of water sources, control of air pollution, management of hazardous and toxic waste (B3), management of non-B3 waste, management of B3, control of land damage, and waste management. Meanwhile, beyond compliance criteria are more dynamic as they are adjusted to technological developments, the application of best environmental management practices, and global environmental issues.
Some points in the beyond compliance assessment include the implementation of environmental management systems, energy efficiency efforts, emission reduction efforts, implementation of reduce, reuse, and recycle for B3 waste, water conservation and reduction of wastewater pollution load, biodiversity protection, and community development programmes.