Pertamina's Managing Director Says These 4 Factors Could Cause Explosions And Fires At The Refinery

The atmosphere of the DPR RI Commission VII Hearing Meeting (RDP) with Pertamina at the DPR RI Jakarta Building, Tuesday (4/4/2023). (DOC. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero) Nicke Widyawati revealed 4 risks that could cause an explosion or fire at Pertamina's refinery.

Nicke said these 4 things were obtained from the results of audits conducted by international auditors.

After the Balongan incident in 2021, continued Nicke, Pertamina has conducted an audit by international auditors using the Level 9 International Sustainability Rating System (ISRS) used by Global Practice.

"There are 4 possible causes for the risk that will occur in our assets, first because of lightning," said Nicke, quoted on Saturday, April 8.

For this reason, he continued, Pertamina has built a two-layer lightning protection system and has been completed.

The second factor is overflow or overflowing, causing fires at the refinery.

"It also happened in one of the cases and it was one of the causes of the fire," added Nicke.

The third factor is hydrogen leaks like what happened to the Balikpapan Refinery.

"With the high temperature of this hydrogen attack running, we can extinguish the hydrogen leak in Dumai Refinery within 9 minutes," explained Nicke.

While the fourth factor is sulfur sulfization or sulfur sediment which can be prevented by revitalizing oil refineries so that they can process high sulfur.

"The programs carried out by RDMP are so that these refineries can process high sulfur, so the price is cheaper," explained Nicke.

Nicke further said, in terms of Operational Availability, as one of the parameters for the refinery reliability monitor, Pertamina uses Solomon as an international refinery benchmark.

"Consolidatively in 2022, the results of the Operational Availability benchmark according to Solomon's standards at all Pertamina refineries have reached a score of 96 percent or above the average of Global Refinery," he concluded.