The Jakarta Post cited Pertamina president director Dwi Soetjipto as saying that the oil refineries would be operated only to process crude from nearby oil fields.
As part of the move, the company plans to operate Plaju oil refinery in South Sumatra at only half of its production capacity.
Soetjipto said: "We are optimizing the refineries’ operation, not by closing them down but by focusing them on processing crude from nearby fields. For example, the Plaju refinery will process crude [from] near the Plaju area."
Soetjipto said that the Plaju refinery currently receives half of the crude from fields near the area, while the remainder comes from other areas or is imported.
According to figures from Pertamina’s road map of refinery development, the Plaju refinery is capable of processing 90,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd),
Additionally, Pertamina is evaluating the possibility of renegotiating the crude oil price supplied to the Kasim refinery, which is far from the oil-resources area, in Papua.
Pertamina currently operates six refineries, with a combined capacity of over 1 million barrels, which are located in Cilacap, Central Java; Balongan, West Java; Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; Dumai, Riau; Kasim, West Papua; and Plaju, South Sumatr, Indonesia.
