Pertamina to build lube oil plants

Pertamina to build lube oil plants

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned oil company Pertamina will build
four lube oil blending plants in cooperation with Mobil Oil of
the United States, Shell of the Netherlands, Caltex of the United
States, China Petroleum Company and domestic firms.

"But we are still negotiating with the foreign and private
domestic companies about the lube projects," Minister of Mines
and Energy I.B. Sudjana said at a hearing here yesterday with the
House of Representatives' Commission on Industry and Mines.

He added that the planned lube oil blending plants will be
built in Jakarta under a joint venture arrangement with Mobil
Oil, in Surabaya with Shell, in Medan with Caltex and in
Ujungpandang with China Petroleum.

All of the joint ventures, he said, will involve private
national companies as shareholders.

Sudjana, however, did not elaborate on the technical details
of the projects such as designed capacities and investment plans.

Answering a question about the legal foundation of the joint
ventures, Sudjana said that the role of private companies in
establishing the lube oil plants is allowed by the President's
Decision No. 18/1988.

"In order to fulfill the country's needs for lube oil, the
mines and energy minister may license private companies to
reprocess used lube oil to produce lube oil," he quoted the
decree as stipulating.

He said that Pertamina will provide the lube base for the
companies which recondition used lube oil as it has done with PT
Wiraswasta Gemilang Indonesia, a private company licensed to
recycle used lube oil in Bekasi, West Java. (04)