Balikpapan Refinement Settlement Prioritized Nicke Widyawati

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - The new President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero) Nicke Widyawati will prioritize the completion of the development of an oil refinery in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

According to her, in a press conference after his inauguration as Pertamina's Managing Director at the Ministry of BUMN Jakarta, Wednesday (08/29/2018), from the planned six refinery projects, Balikpapan was prioritized for its development.

"There are six planned refineries, four RDMPs (increase in refinery capacity) and two GRRs (new refineries). We are targeting the signature of the EPC (construction) contract to be Balikpapan. That is a matter of priority," she said.

The six refinery development projects consist of four "refinery development master plan" projects (RDMP) namely Cilacap, Balikpapan, Balongan and Dumai and two "grass root refinery" (GRR) projects in Tuban and Bontang.

According to Nicke, Balikpapan Refinery was prioritized because the project progress was better prepared from various aspects such as land and the stage of "front end engineering design" (FEED) or initial detail design.

For the "engineering, procurement, and construction" (EPC) Balikpapan Refinery, he continued, it would be carried out by Pertamina itself and with partners.

"EPC will be carried out on its own, in parallel it will look for a 'partner'. So, with or without a 'partner', we will run (EPC Balikpapan Refinery). We will not wait until there is a 'partner', because Indonesia has missed too long to build a refinery. "So, this (Balikpapan) refinery must be prioritized," she told the media crew.

Besides Balikpapan, Nicke is also committed to immediately resolve the problem of the Tuban Refinery.

Land that still overlaps with the land owned by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and community land is a constraint to the construction of the Tuban Refinery.

"That is the target this year. For Cilacap and others it will also be worked on. But those two (Balikpapan and Tuban) will be pursued this year," she said.