Pertamina’s Plaju Refinery Succeeds in Converting Palm Oil Into Gasoline and LPG
PT Pertamina (Persero) has succeeded in converting palm oil into green fuels and LPG at Plaju refinery in South Sumatera.
JAKARTA--PT Pertamina (Persero) has succeeded in converting palm oil into green fuels and LPG at Plaju refinery in South Sumatera. This makes it possible for Pertamina to save US$ 160 million or about Rp 2,3 trillion on fuels imports.
On its press release, Friday (28/12/2018), Pertamina’s Director of Refinery Budi Santoso Syarif said the state firm could cut its imports by 7.36 thousand barrels per day (bph). “The government supports this as it will save foreign exchange reserves,” Budi said.
Plaju refinery, which has a processing capacity of 20 Million Barel Steam Per Day (MBSD), has processed palm oil since early December. Budi said, palm oil is converted to Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Oil (RBDPO) before being blended with fossil fuels. After that, it is blended with chemical substances. “It produces high quality gasoline as it has high octane content,” Budi added.
The refinery is able to produce 405 thousand barrels which is equal to 64,500 kiloliter 90 octane green fuels per month. It is also able to produce 11,000 ton green LPG per month.
Budi said this palm oil conversion will also increase local content requirement level. “Given the fact that palm oil is local product and all transaction for the product use rupiah, the country mas reduce its budget deficit.” ***
