Indonesia seeks fuel oil

Indonesia seeks fuel oil

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesia will seek an extra 200,000 barrels of 180 centistoke fuel oil to cover any shortfall during a shutdown of a visbreaker at the Cilacap refinery, a source with national oil firm Pertamina said.

The 52,000 barrel per day (bpd) visbreaker will be shut for one week from Sept.17 because of leakage in the unit, a Pertamina processing department official said on Wednesday.

But the Pertamina source said the actual shutdown was expected to start on Sept.20 and would last for 10 days.

Indonesia normally buys 300,000-400,000 barrels of fuel oil a month, and about 600,000 barrels if consumption rises.

The source said Pertamina's low sulfur waxy residue (LSWR) exports might increase as a result of the shutdown.

But the trade source denied rumors here that Indonesia is seeking an additional one million barrels of gas oil for end- September delivery as a result of the shutdown.

Indonesia has already bought nearly four million barrels of gas oil for September arrival to cover for shortages during the current shutdown of a 200,000 bpd crude unit at the Balikpapan refinery in Kalimantan.