TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina is aiming to be oil self-sufficient by 2023. Therefore, the company will be focusing on developing new oil fields to reduce dependency on crude oil and fuel imports.
Pertamina is currently operating six oil fields: Dumai refinery unit (RU) II, Plaju RU III, Cilacap RU IV, Balikpapan RU V, Balongan RU VI and Kasim RU VII. Meanwhile, Pangkalan Brandan RU I has been abandoned since 2007 because it was no longer cost effective.
In view of Indonesia’s economy and foreign exchange reserves management, Pertamina has taken the initiative to build the infrastructure that comprises of two groups. The first group covers the development of four oil fields: Balikpapan RU V, Balongan RU VI, Cilacap RU IV and Dumai RU II. The work program is known as the RDMP (Refinery Development Master Plan). The second group covers the development of new grass-root refineries (NGRR) in Tuban and Bontang.
The built-in capacity of the six refineries is 1.05 million barrels per day. “But in reality, the six oil refineries produce around 800-950,000 barrels oil per day,” Pertamina director for megaprojects of processing and petrochemicals Rachmad Hardadi said.
Indonesia needs roughly 72 million kiloliters of fuel annually. Pertamina, however, can only supply around 39 million kiloliters of fuel. The gap has been filled by crude oil and fuel imports.
The country’s import dependence on oil hovers around 33 to 44 percent. As a result, foreign exchange reserves continue to decline.
Rachmad said that the refineries will boost Pertamina’s oil production to 2.2 million barrels per day. The megaproject of 6 refineries is expected to cost Rp500 trillion. Pertamina will operate the refineries itself as well as cooperate with international oil and gas companies.
SETIAWAN ADIWIJAYA
