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New Cilacap Refinery to Produce 60 Percent more RON92 Gasoline

ShareNew Cilacap refinery to produce 60 percent more RON92 gasoline. State energy giant Pertamina has completed a refinery project called Proyek Langit...

Written by Erwin Prasetyo · 1 min read >
Cilacap Refinery

New Cilacap refinery to produce 60 percent more RON92 gasoline. State energy giant Pertamina has completed a refinery project called Proyek Langit Biru Cilacap (PLBC) in the firm’s Cilacap refinery, which allows the firm to be able to produce a larger amount of cleaner gasoline, more specifically fuel with a research octane number (RON) of 92. 

Cilacap Refinery
State energy giant Pertamina’s main commissioner Tanri Abeng (left), Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arcandra Tahar (center) and Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati chat during a visit to Pertamina Refinery Unit IV in Cilacap, Central Java. Their visit was to mark the completion of Langit Biru Cilacap development project, which allows the firm to be able to produce a larger amount of cleaner gasoline, more specifically fuel with a research octane number. New Cilacap refinery to produce 60 percent more RON92 gasoline (RON) of 92.(JP/Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman )

Pertamina’s refinery and petrochemical megaproject director Ignatius Tallulembang said Friday that the project was fully completed and had been in operation since June. 

“We started the project’s construction in November 2015 and completed it in June. Right now it is running at 100 percent capacity,” he said during a visit to the Cilacap refinery in Central Java.  

The project, which cost US$392million, increased its RON 92 fuel production capacity by 66.8 percent from only 1 million barrels per month to 1.6 million barrels per month.

Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arcandra Tahar reminded the refinery’s management to be able to quickly detect changes in market demand.

“You [the Cilacap refinery’s management] have to be quick in calculating the fuel market demand. For example, you have to know what customers want next week,” he said.

Arcandra further asked the management to take care of the refinery’s facilities as the unit’s fuel production contributes 30 percent of the national fuel supply.

According to data from the firm, the project helped to improve the Cilacap refinery’s gross margin at around $6.5 billion per day and also benefited national gross domestic product by 0.12 percent. 

“The project also has the potential to reduce High Octane Mogas Component imports by around 600,000 barrels per month,” Tallulembang added. 

Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati said that with the project, the Cilacap refinery had become Pertamina’s second refinery that could produce Euro 4 standard fuel.

Euro 4 is a global standard of fuel quality that has a RON beyond 91

“Therefore, Pertamina now has two refineries that can produce this type of fuel, namely the Balongan refinery and the Cilacap refinery, thanks to the PLBC project,” she said.

Pertamina and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry visited the Cilacap refinery on Friday to conduct a final check of the PLBC project before President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurates it. No date has been set for the inauguration.

Nicke further said that PLBC was part of a bigger project to develop the Cilacap refinery under the Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP), which is a plan to develop four of Pertamina’s existing refineries.

Along with the RDMP, the New Grass Root Refinery project, which is to build two new refineries, is expected to double Indonesia’s refining capacity to 2 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) by the end of 2026 from only 1 million bopd at present.  New Cilacap refinery to produce 60 percent more RON92 gasoline (evi, Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman, The Jakarta Post)

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