Indonesia’s Pertamina says Balongan refinery resumes normal operations

SINGAPORE (ICIS)—Indonesia’s state-owned energy firm Pertamina said on Friday that normal operations have resumed at its 125,000 bbl/day Balongan refinery in West Java, which was shut by a recent fire incident.

The company began restarting the main crude distillation unit (CDU) at the site in West Java on 31 March, after extinguishing the fire that went on for more than two days, Pertamina said in a statement in Bahasa Indonesia.

All production units at Pertamina’s Balongan complex were shut on 29 March as a safety measure although the fire was concentrated at the site’s tank storage area.

Secondary processing units have resumed operations in stages, Pertamina said.

The RCC (residual catalytic cracker) unit and the “KLBB unit (Kilang Langit Biru Balongan), which produces fuel products” at the site started operating normally by mid-week,  the company said.

The Balongan refinery supplies fuel to Jakarta, Banten and parts of West Java.

Market sources, however, said that Pertamina’s two propylene (C3) units at the site are still not operational, preventing Polytama Propindo from restarting its polypropylene (PP) plant in Balongan.

The propylene units have a combined capacity of 440,000 tonnes/year, while the PP plant has a 380,000 tonne/year capacity, according to ICIS data.

Polytama’s PP plant relies on feedstock supply from Pertamina’s propylene units.

Propylene production is not expected to resume until “probably end of next week”, said a source familiar with the matter.

Polytama Propindo’s PP plant may not restart until after a month since the shutdown on 29 March, another source said.

Additional reporting by Jackie Wong, Jude Chan and Pearl Bantillo