To Be Inaugurated by Prabowo, This is the Profile of Balikpapan RDMP

RDMP Balikpapan (Photo: KPI)

BALIKPAPAN - President Prabowo Subianto is scheduled to inaugurate the Balikpapan Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP).

This national strategic project, which has been built since 2019, is an important milestone in the development of integrated national energy infrastructure. The project includes a system for receiving crude oil, processing, and supporting the reliability of the entire energy supply chain.

This project with a total investment equivalent to IDR 123 trillion is to modernize existing refineries, so that it will increase the capacity of oil processing, produce high-quality and environmentally friendly fuels, encourage the downstream petrochemical industry, and strengthen national energy resilience.

Meanwhile, the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) Complex facility is a key element in the Balikpapan Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP) Project.

As a main processing unit, the RFCC Complex is designed to optimize the processing of oil residues into high-value fuel and petrochemical products.

The presence of this facility makes the Balikpapan Refinery able to produce high-quality fuel equivalent to Euro 5 standards, which is cleaner and lower in emissions, while strengthening national energy resilience. In addition, the Balikpapan Refinery can also produce petrochemical products of propylene and sulfur.

Vice President of Corporate Communication Pertamina, Muhammad Baron said, the RFCC Complex is the backbone of Balikpapan Refinery operations in supporting the transition to cleaner energy.

"Through the RFCC Complex and other additional units, the Balikpapan Refinery has experienced a significant increase from the Euro 2 standard with a sulfur content of 2,500 ppm to the Euro 5 standard with a sulfur content of only 10 ppm. In addition, the Balikpapan Refinery will be able to produce petrochemical products. This is a big leap in improving the quality of national fuels, with a refinery capacity of 360,000 barrels per day and supporting the downstream program," Baron said in a statement to the media, quoted on Monday, January 12.

He added, the Balikpapan RDMP Project is the largest refinery modernization project in Indonesia. With the operation of the RFCC Complex, the Balikpapan Refinery not only produces gasoline and diesel, but is also able to increase the production of LPG and produce petrochemical products that have not previously been produced at this refinery.

"The addition of LPG production from the Balikpapan Refinery is estimated to reach 336 thousand tons per year, thus strengthening the domestic LPG supply and gradually reducing dependence on imports," he explained.

In addition to increasing product diversification, the RFCC Complex also allows the processing of residual oil that was previously difficult to process into high-value products such as naphtha and propylene. This innovation increases the economic value of the refinery while expanding the contribution of the Balikpapan Refinery in the national energy and petrochemical industry chain.

In terms of performance, the complexity of the Balikpapan Refinery has increased significantly, reflected by the Nelson Complexity Index (NCI) which jumped from 3.7 to 8.0. Where the higher the figure, it indicates that the refinery is more complex, so it is able to produce more high-quality products. Meanwhile, the Yield Valuable Product (YVP) or return on valuable products increased from 75.3 percent to 91.8 percent, or increased by about 16 percent, confirming the increasing efficiency and competitiveness of the refinery.

"RFCC Complex is a symbol of Pertamina's readiness to usher in a new era of modern refinery processing, as well as a tangible manifestation of support for national energy self-sufficiency as mandated in the Government's Asta Cita," said Baron.