Pertamina to go solo on Balongan refinery

Jakarta

INDONESIAN energy company Pertamina will proceed with an upgrade of its Balongan refinery without a partner, company officials said on Monday.

The decision to go it alone on the project, which is on the north coast of Java, comes after the expiry in November of an initial agreement with Saudi Aramco from 2015 on upgrades of the Balongan and Dumai refineries. The state-owned Saudi oil company had expressed an interest in the project as recently as December. "The process of forming a partnership was taking a long time," Pertamina CEO Dwi Soetjipto told Reuters, when asked why the state-controlled Pertamina had decided against working with Aramco on Balongan. "This is really needed," he said referring to the upgrade.