MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations between Indonesian state energy firm PT Pertamina and Saudi Aramco over a joint venture to upgrade Pertamina’s Cilacap refinery have been extended further until the end of this month, reported Reuters with reference to officials' statement.
Arcandra Tahar, Indonesia’s deputy energy minister, said the extension was to give the two companies more time to agree on asset valuation.
Talks had been extended several times over disagreement on valuation for the refinery and Pertamina in April warned that if talks with Aramco failed, it would launch the project without a partner to meet an operational target of 2025.
Aramco and Pertamina agreed to negotiate to form a joint venture for this project in 2016.
Pertamina will decide "as soon as practical" its preferred partner for Balikpapan refinery upgrade, Tahar also said.
Pertamina already approached the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (Socar), Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for possible partnership in the Balikpapan project.
As MRC informed earlier, in September 2018, Eni and PT Pertamina (Persero) signed in Porto Marghera, at Eni Green Refinery, a Memorandum of Understanding further expanding the relationship into green refinery.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
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