Pertamina, Saudi Aramco extend refinery talks
Negotiations between Indonesian state energy firm PT Pertamina and Saudi Aramco over a joint venture to upgrade Pertamina’s Cilacap refinery have been extended further until the end of this month, officials said.
Arcandra Tahar, Indonesia’s deputy energy minister, said the extension was to give the two companies more time to agree on asset valuation.
Talks had been extended several times over disagreement on valuation for the refinery and Pertamina in April warned that if talks with Aramco failed, it would launch the project without a partner to meet an operational target of 2025.
Aramco and Pertamina agreed to negotiate to form a joint venture for this project in 2016.
Pertamina will decide “as soon as practical” its preferred partner for Balikpapan refinery upgrade, Tahar also said.
Pertamina already approached the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (Socar), Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for possible partnership in the Balikpapan project.
(Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Aditya Soni)
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