TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The State Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Rini Soemarno said the government would reform the oil refinery into an environment-friendly refinery of100 percent biodiesel (B100). According to Rini, the plan would take effect in two areas, in Plaju, Palembang and Dumai, Riau.
“In this two place, we will convert crude oil into palm oil as one of the refineries has been built since the 1930s,” said Minister Rini in a press conference on Infrastructure Investment Forum, a sideline event of IMF-WB meeting, in Conrad Hotel, Nusa Dua, Bali, Tuesday, October 9.
Rini explained the plan was inspired by the Italian oil and gas giant ENI S.p.A that altering old refinery that was built in 1935 into the green energy one in 2012 to produce 100 percent of biodiesel. In 2015, the company produced B100 using a raw material palm oil from Indonesia.
Understanding the issue, Rini strived to work on the similar subject, revitalizing old refinery to a modern one by collaborating with ENI.
“We expect the import needs on Solar-branded fuel will decrease by this conversion,” she pinned hope.
Furthermore, based on state-run oil and gas firm Pertamina’s data, Plaju refinery had a capacity of 133,700 barrels per day (bpd), while Dumai at 170,000 (bpd). Besides, the agreement was in line with the government’s plan to drop the increasing import of oil and gas commodity, which was Solar-branded fuel.
Since September 2018, the Indonesian Government had imposed a mandatory use of 20 percent mix biodiesel (B20). Later, B20 would be used for all diesel machine in the domestic such as train locomotive and heavy tools.
DIAS PRASONGKO