Saudi Aramco and Indonesia’s Pertamina are considering a slimmed down version of a planned joint expansion of the Cilacap refinery and petchems complex in Central Java. Pertamina chief executive Nicke Widyawati says the companies could build a new facility at the site rather than upgrading and expanding existing plants, according to Reuters. Ms Widyawati says Aramco and Pertamina aim to finalize an agreement in first quarter 2020, although talks have been extended several times as they cannot agree a valuation for the project, which Pertamina set at $4-5bn (MEES, 1 November).

Aramco signed a preliminary deal in November 2015 for a 45% stake in expanding Cilacap, but later asked for the stake to be reduced to 30%. The deal would see Aramco providing 70% of the expanded refinery’s crude oil, which is almost 260,000 b/d. The first project would increase crude distillation capacity of the refinery from 348,000 b/d to 370,000 b/d while expanding upgrading capacity. Later work would raise paraxylene capacity from 280,000 t/y to 600,000 t/y and polypropylene capacity from 146,000 t/y to 160,000 t/y. (MEES, 27 May 2016). (CONTINUED - 176 WORDS)