Indonesian state energy firm PT Pertamina said on Monday it has initiated the start-up of the residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit at its Balikpapan refinery.
The unit is a crucial part of Balikpapan’s $7.4 billion upgrade that would make the refinery the largest in Indonesia, Pertamina said in a statement.
The upgrade aims to increase Balikpapan’s refining capacity to 360,000 barrels per day from 260,000 bpd, and will produce outputs such as gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and liquefied petroleum gas to Euro V standard, the company said.
Pertamina said it had also conducted successful capacity testing at Balikpapan’s distillery unit.
The company has recently completed two new crude oil storage units with total capacity of 1 million barrels each at its Lawe-lawe terminal in Balikpapan, and has started operations at its LPG refinery, it added.
