Indonesia’s Pertamina and Saudi Aramco extend refinery discussions

Indonesia’s state energy company PT Pertamina has said it is extending negotiations with Saudi Aramco on the potential joint development of an oil refinery in the country by another three months.

Read: Clariant and Indonesia’s Pertamina collaborate in advanced biofuels assessment

This comes after talks were previously extended by six months from last December, with Pertamina reiterating that the two sides had been unable to agree a “valuation” for the refinery, without giving further details.

In 2016, Pertamina and Aramco agreed to negotiate to form a joint venture to build and operate the Cilacap refinery in the province of Central Java.

Pertamina has also agreed to hire a financial adviser to help finalise a deal.

The Cilacap refinery is one of six major projects that are part of a push to double Pertamina’s refining capacity to 2 million barrels per day (bpd).

Pertamina officials has also said in April that if talk with Aramco failed, the Indonesian company would launch the project without a partner to meet an operational target of 2025.