Pertamina sets unleaded fuel plan
Pertamina sets unleaded fuel plan
JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned oil company Pertamina plans to
produce enough unleaded gasoline to supply Greater Jakarta by
1999 under the Blue Sky Program to reduce air pollution.
"Our first target is sufficient production of unleaded
gasoline for the greater Jakarta area by 1999, and in the long
term we expect to supply the whole country," Pertamina's
President Faisal Abda'oe said Wednesday.
He was commenting on President Soeharto's order that Pertamina
phase out the use of lead as an additive in its gasoline by 1999.
Lead is used to increase the octane power of gasoline, but
lead particles in the air can harm people's cardiovascular
systems and their intelligence.
Abda'oe said Pertamina began producing unleaded gasoline last
year in its new refinery in Balongan, West Java.
New technology at the Balongan refinery means Pertamina can
use methyl tertiary buthyl ether instead of lead to enhance the
octane power of gasoline.
"Balongan has a production unit with a capacity of 2,400
barrels of unleaded gasoline a day," said Abda'oe. The Balongan
refinery has a processing capacity of 125,000 barrels of crude
oil a day.
"We call the unleaded gasoline Super TT (Tanpa Timbal or
without lead) and we have sold small amounts of it to the
public," he said.
He said Pertamina sold about 1,753 kiloliters of Super TT last
year.
"This year, until September, we sold 1,890 kiloliters, and
next year we hope to sell about 5,000 kiloliters," he said,
adding that all these sales were in Greater Jakarta.
Next year, he said, Pertamina would build a similar production
unit, called a reformer, at its Musi refinery in South Sumatra.
It would have a production capacity of 13,500 barrels of High
Octane Nogas Component (HONC), a type of unleaded gasoline a day.
It is scheduled to begin production in 1999.
New projects
He said that by the year 2000, Pertamina would establish
similar units in Cilacap, Central Java, and in Balikpapan, East
Kalimantan, with respective production capacities of 22,600
barrels of HONC and 7,700 barrels of HONC a day.
But, he said, it may be difficult to fund the development of
the production units because of the cost of the new technology at
the units.
"The cost of producing unleaded gasoline is slightly higher
than producing leaded gasoline. That's why we have to sell
unleaded gasoline for Rp 1,000 (US$0.43) a liter compared to Rp
700 a liter for leaded gasoline," he said.
Faisal said Pertamina was also trying to promote gas fuel for
public transportation and reduce the amount of lead in its
regular gasoline.
"In 1990 our gasoline contained about 2.5 cc (of lead) per
U.S. gallon. We reduced it to 1.5 cc per U.S. gallon in 1994,
which is equivalent to 0.45 grams per liter of gasoline. Now
we're trying to reduce it to 0.15 grams per liter," he said.
(bnt)