Pertamina: RDMP In Balikpapan Ready To Become An Environmentally Friendly Modern Refinery

Photo: Doc. Antara

PT Pertamina (Persero) said the National Strategic Project (PSN) Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP) Balikpapan, East Kalimantan will become a modern environmentally friendly refinery after receiving funding.

The Balikpapan RDMP will be able to reduce significant exhaust emissions from energy efficiency for operations and products that will be produced later, thus supporting the government's net zero emissions (NZE) program.

Deputy Minister of SOEs I Pahala Nugraha Mansury in his statement, Saturday, June 24, said the energy sector is a very important element for economic development because no activity can occur without energy support.

Previously, Pertamina through the Refining & Petrochemical Subholding of PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (KPI) on Friday, June 23, held the Closing Ceremony Project Financing RDMP Balikpapan.

Funding for the construction of the project won the trust and support of four export credit agency and 22 commercial creditors whose value reached 3.1 billion US dollars to be distributed to PT Kilang Pertamina Balikpapan (KPB).

"The success of financing the Balikpapan Refinery RDMP Project is certainly an achievement for Pertamina, KPI, and KPB. This is the largest project financing in Indonesia to date, even the commitment submitted by creditors has over-subscribed up to 42 percent," said Pahala, quoted from Antara.

This achievement, said Pahala, proves that Pertamina is considered a trusted global energy company and shows how big and strategic the project is.

"Therefore, we believe Pertamina's ability to complete the Balikpapan RDMP project can increase production from 260 barrels per day to 360 thousand barrels. This is very important for us and for Indonesia," said Pahala.

As the project with the largest investment, Pertamina said that the Balikpapan RDMP brings a multiplier effect for regional economic growth because it involves regional companies, absorbs local labor, and the domestic component level (TKDN) which is targeted to reach 30-35 percent.

When the project is completed, it is projected to save the current account of 2.5 billion US dollars per year from fuel, LPG, and petrochemical products.

Pertamina President Director Nicke Widyawati revealed that the Balikpapan RDMP project will become a modern, environmentally friendly refinery because it can reduce carbon emissions from operational energy efficiency and the products it will produce.

"The Balikpapan refinery will be able to process almost all types of crude, more sophisticated processing power, so they can find crude more efficient and cheap because it can be for high sulfur crude. The quality of the products we produce increases from euro 2 to euro 5," said Nicke.

According to Nicke, Pertamina's efforts to complete the Balikpapan RDMP were not hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The refinery construction process continues and has so far achieved 74 percent progress while still prioritizing security and safety.

The construction of the Balikpapan refinery, said Nicke, has a high level of difficulty because the project work is adjacent to the existing refinery which is still operating.

"It's like making a new carriage, when the same train is running fast and then this new carriage will be combined with the existing carriage. That's the challenge and we can do it again," said Nicke.

Other challenges are also found in the use of large and heavy-capacity equipment such as residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) insengager/striker and regenerator with a total weight of around 3,100 tons whose installation uses a gaming trigger crane, which is a special crane imported from Belgium.

The equipment has a gradual regeneration system (multistage regeneration), which is a new method used in RFCC units to be able to process residue (bottom product) into high economic and environmentally friendly fuel products, so as to increase the economy/margin of the refinery.

"There is nothing in this world to build side by side projects like this. We continue to operate refineries so that we can maintain the energy security and supply of fuel so that they are not imported," said Nicke again.