RDMP Balikpapan Refinery Ready To Be Inaugurated December 2025

JAKARTA - The Balikpapan Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP) project is targeted to be completed and start initial operations in mid-December 2025. This project is expected to be able to quickly operate to meet 22 to 25 percent of the national fuel needs.

"This morning until this afternoon, we checked the facilities at the Balikpapan RDMP, which consists of production facilities and supporting facilities including oil storage infrastructure facilities for 2 million barrels," said Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Yuliot in a written statement, Thursday, November 20.

Yuliot said this visit was made to see the remaining progress of the Balikpapan Refinery RDMP project, before being inaugurated directly by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto in December.

"Our visit this time is to see the readiness for the production of the Balikpapan Refinery which is planned to be inaugurated by the President. We will propose an inauguration of the facilities by the President based on the readiness in the field," he said.

Regarding the progress of completing the RDMP Project, Yuliot said that currently there are only a few left in the details, not the main part of the project, so it doesn't take long to complete it.

"So, for facilities readiness, there is still a improvement of around 1-2 percent which we hope will be completed in the next few days 100 percent so that it is ready to be inaugurated. The 1.5 percent is only the details of the work," he explained.

The Balikpapan Refinery RDMP project is one of the National Strategic Projects (PSN), where this project cost an investment of 7.4 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp126 trillion. This project is one of the largest investments made by SOEs in one activity point to reduce imports of fuel oil (BBM).

"One of the facilities here will provide energy, with this facility, we fully support the President's vision, namely energy security and also how this energy resilience will support national resilience as a whole because all economic activities are impossible without energy availability," said Yuliot.

President Director of PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (KPI), Taufik Aditiyawarman said, a number of important stages have been passed by KPI to ensure this project runs well. Among them are the initial operation of the main processing unit or Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFC) Complex RDMP Balikpapan, which was carried out on November 10, 2025.

Taufik explained that the RFCC is the main unit of the refinery to produce standard products equivalent to Euro V. RFCC will also increase the efficiency and economic value of the Balikpapan Refinery. The operation of the RFCC unit on Hero's Day 2025 became a symbol of KPI and Pertamina's commitment to realizing sovereign and sustainable development ideals.

"This is an important stage that has been passed by KPI and Pertamina in the operation of the Balikpapan RDMP. RFCC not only increases the efficiency and quality of products, but also increases the added value of domestic natural resources," said Taufik.

In addition to producing environmentally friendly fuel, Balikpapan Refinery after fully operational will also process the existing residuals to produce high-value chemical industry products such as propylene and ethylene. These two products are urgently needed by the domestic petrochemical industry as raw materials that have been short of supply and are met with demand through imports.