Pertamina plans to redesign Balongan refinery
Pertamina plans to redesign Balongan refinery
JAKARTA (JP): State oil and gas company Pertamina plans to
redesign its US$2 billion Balongan refinery in West Java
following intermittent production problems.
Company processing director Samto Utomo said the refinery's
residue catalytic cracker (RCC) unit, which produces liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) and gasoline, might have a design "fault" in
view of its repeated production failure over the past four
months.
He said the RCC is guaranteed by its designer, the United
States designing and engineering company Universal Oil Product,
to be able to operate for two years before taking a regular 40-
day break.
But the unit has twice experienced mechanical failures over
the past four months despite the fact that it has only been
operating for one year since its last break in Feb. 1997, he
said.
"We are thoroughly reviewing the design so that we can modify
it later to improve its reliability."
Samto said Pertamina was assisted by Universal Oil and British
Petroleum, which has extensive experience in operating RCC.
"Under the contract, we shall not pay Universal Oil to rectify
the unit's design," Samto said.
The Balongan refinery was built by Pertamina with contractors
JGC Corporation of Japan and the U.S.'s Foster Wheeler from 1990
to 1995.
Project financing was provided by Java Petroleum Investment
Co. Ltd. -- a consortium grouping Mitsui Corp. Marubeni Corp.
Sumitomo, Itochu and 20 Japanese bankers.
The refinery, designed with a processing capacity of 125,000
barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, has two production units: the
so-called crude distillation unit (CDU) and RCC unit.
CDU processes crude oil into naptha, kerosene, automotive
diesel and residue; and RCC turns the residue from CDU into LPG
and Premium, Super TT and Premix gasoline.
Jakarta and its surrounding areas get their fuel supply from
the Balongan refinery.
Samto said the refinery's CDU did not have technical problems
and could still operate normally.
But, the refinery's RCC unit was broken last Monday and should
cease operation for one month of repairs.
Some analysts believe the repeated production problems at the
Balongan refinery's RCC unit was because of its substandard
design.
But Samto denied the allegation, saying the design made by
Universal Oil had met international standards.
The unit's technical failures might be because of two factors,
including that its capacity was too big and it was fed with the
low-quality crude oil, he said.
The Balongan refinery's RCC unit is the world's biggest with a
processing capacity of 83,000 bpd, compared to other RCC units in
the world which have a capacity of between 30,000 and 40,000 bpd.
"We initially wanted to build two RCC units with the capacity
of 40,000 bpd each but we at last decided to have one big RCC
unit since its construction was 30 percent cheaper than the
construction of two smaller units," Samto said.
The unit is fed with Duri crude oil, which is known as the
world's lowest quality crude oil due to its high metal content,
produced by PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia in Riau.
Duri crude oil is cheap and has low demand on the
international market.
"Pertamina uses the Duri crude oil for its Balongan refinery
to help strengthen the crude oil's price on the international
market," Samto said. (jsk)