Indonesian state-run oil and gas company Pertamina has appointed South Korean engineering companies SK Engineering & Construction and Hyundai Engineering & Construction as engineering and construction contractors for the US$4bn Balikpapan refinery modernisation project, which is now slated to start in early 2019. The upgrade will increase the refinery’s crude processing capacity from the current 260,000 bbl/d to 360,000 bbl/d and will enable the refinery to produce Euro 5 emissions standard fuel by 2023.
This fits into Pertamina's refinery revitalization program’s RDMP, which aims at upgrading the ageing the 260,000 bbl/d Balikpapan, 348,000 bbl/d Cilacap, 127,000 bbl/d Dumai, and 125,000 bbl/d Balongan refineries, increasing the volume and the quality of their fuel production to conform with Euro 4 and Euro 5 standards and at developing two new greenfield projects. Once fully completed in 2026, RDMP will boost Indonesian crude processing capacity from its current capacity of about 1.1 mb/d to 2 mb/d.