Indonesia's state energy company Pertamina is planning to resume operations at the Trans Pacific Petrochemicals Indotama (TPPI) refinery located in Tuban, East Java, early next month.
Operations were suspended since 20 May 2014 as the company failed to extend cooperation with owner of the refinery, PT Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI).
Pertamina expects to resume the refinery operations with initial production capacity of 20,000 barrels per day (bpd), in October upon resolving administrative matters, Reuters reported.
Pertamina spokeswoman Widanda Pusponegoro was reported by the news agency as saying: "Fuel production, primarily gasoline, from the TPPI refinery will support national fuel supplies and reduce imports significantly.
Pusponegoro said that Pertamina was considered by the Indonesian Government to acquire the refinery operations in near future.
"Our focus for now is to finalize the financial and all the legal requirements," Pusponegoro said.
"In terms of operations we don’t have any obstacles."
The restart of the refinery, which is expected to have a peak production capacity of 50,000 to 55,000 bpd later, is a part of the government’s strategy to double fuel production by 2023 in a bid to reduce dependency on expensive imports.
As part of this effort, the country is considering modernizing and upgrading the existing refineries as well as constructing new refineries.
Pertamina has 26.6% stake in TPPI while other partners include the Finance Ministry with 25% interest, Argo Capital and Agro Global each with 22%, as well as Sojitz and Itochu each with 2% interest, reported Katadata news.
Commissioned in 1994, the refinery faced closures several times due to issues related to legal and financial among others.
The TPPI refinery also faced graft investigation over the condensates sale earlier this year, reported Reuters.
Designed with a 100,000 bpd condensate splitter, the complex can produce fuel products including light naphtha, kerosene, gas oil, fuel oil, mogas, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and aromatic product such as paraxylene, orthoxylene, benzene, toluene, and mixedxylene.
Image: Indonesia plans to double fuel production by 2023. Photo: courtesy of Victor Habbick/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.