Nusamba to develop oil refinery

Nusamba to develop oil refinery

JAKARTA (JP): The Nusamba Group plans to develop an oil
refinery in cooperation with a foreign partner, the group's
chairman Muhammad "Bob" Hasan said yesterday.

Hasan said after meeting with President Soeharto at Merdeka
Palace that the group had yet to select the location of the
refinery plant nor its foreign partner.

But he hinted that the plant would probably be located in the
eastern part of Indonesia and the project would start one year
from now.

Nusamba is one of several investors which have expressed an
interest in the downstream oil industry.

Pertamina's president Faisal Abda'oe earlier said there were
two companies planning to develop oil refineries in Probolinggo
and Situbondo, East Java.

One of the companies is PT Buana Ganda Perkasa, owned by
Probosutedjo, which plans to develop a refinery plant in
Probolinggo with US$3.5 billion investment.

The other company is Asia Pacific Petroleum of Britain which
plans to build a refinery plant in Situbondo with $1.54 billion
investment.

Pertamina data says Buana Ganda Perkasa received approval from
the Investment Coordinating Body in July 1994 and Asia Pacific
Petroleum in July 1995.

President Soeharto recently issued a decree allowing private
companies to set up oil and gas refineries by themselves or in a
joint venture with Pertamina.

The decree says Pertamina will remain the sole distributor of
private fuel on the domestic market at a negotiable price.

Abda'oe said Pertamina had not yet negotiated a price with any
company wanting to develop oil refineries.

At present, Pertamina operates eight refineries with a
combined capacity of 989,500 barrels a day.

According to Pertamina data, domestic fuel consumption grew by
6 percent to 50.19 million kiloliters in 1996/1997, 22.5 percent
or 11.34 million kiloliters of which were imported.

Abda'oe said Indonesia needed additional refineries with a
combined capacity of 350,000 barrels per day by the year 2000.
(jsk)