Pertamina to shut cracker

Pertamina to shut cracker

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina
will shut down its 22,500 barrels-per-day hydrocracker at its
Balikpapan refinery for a month from mid-April for maintenance,
industry sources said yesterday.

Pertamina's Balikpapan refinery in Kalimantan has two crude
distillation units of 200,000 and 60,000 barrels per day.

The refinery's two hydrocrackers of the same capacity are
attached to the larger unit, but the other hydrocracker underwent
maintenance in July last year and will continue to run, sources
said.

As the hydrocrackers cracks heavier oil to produce lighter oil
products, sources said the shutdown is expected to back out some
500,000 barrels of low sulphur waxy residue (LSWR) in April.

Indonesia allocated 3.4 million barrels of LSWR in March and
is expected to allocate more for April in an announcement due
next week, they said.