Page 7 - AsianOil Week 22

AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil

“Pumping of water to the well through the working teams. Protection of [the] environment
casing valve is in progress to minimise chances would be paramount while carrying out the well
of fire. Testing of equipment required for con- control operation.”
trolling of the well is in progress,” the state devel- OIL said last week that it was consulting with
oper said this week. The company is digging a three specialist groups in the US over how to
water reservoir close to the well to ensure it has cap the well. Chairman and managing director
enough water. Sushil Chandra Mishra said on May 31 that the
Condensate has reportedly covered nearby company’s efforts to control the blowout were
trees, water bodies and rooves of houses, with taking longer than expected because it did not
1,610 households having been evacuated from have the necessary expertise. The state devel-
the area. oper originally enlisted the help of state-owned
OIL said: “All safety and security measures Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and ONGC
are continuously being monitored to protect Vadodara to help with the situation, company
surrounding villagers and their properties, [and] spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said last week.™

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Pertamina, CPC “close” to building

West Java petrochemical plant

PROJECTS & INDONESIA’S state-owned Pertamina and Tai- of relocating its naphtha cracker to Indonesia in
COMPANIES wan’s state-run CPC are reportedly set to build joint 2010, when it said it was conducting a feasibility
petrochemical complex in West Java Province. study into the project.
The planned petrochemical zone is expected The Taiwanese firm signed a framework agree-
to carry a $12bn price tag, local news portal Sin- ment with Pertamina on the joint project in Octo-
donews quoted Indonesian Coordinating Minister ber 2018, though the cost of the project has almost
for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto as saying doubled since then. Under the terms of the memo-
on May 29. Hartarto said CPC and the Indonesian randum of understanding (MoU) both companies
major were finalising details of the investment. were due to invest a combined $6.49bn in the pro-
The petrochemical facility, which will be ject. Each company was to own a 45% stake in the
located in Balongan, is anticipated to produce joint venture, with the remaining 10% to be held by
1mn tonnes per year (tpy) of ethylene when downstream investors.
operating at full capacity. The partners are to CPC said at the time that Pertamina had
conduct a pre-feasibility study this year, and also convinced it not to relocate its decommis-
start a bankable feasibility study, an environ- sioned Kaohsiung naphtha cracker to Indo-
mental impact assessment (EIA) and the land nesia, insisting that the money could cover a
reclamation process. First production is slated greenfield project. CPC had wanted to relo-
for 2026. cate its naphtha facility owing to the fact that
Indonesian Minister of Industry Agus Gumi- it lacked economies of scale in its home mar-
wang Kartasasmita said in January this year that ket, with privately owned rival Formosa Pet-
CPC would invest about $8.6bn in the facility’s rochemicals’ petrochemical capacity almost
development. tripling that of CPC.
CPC closed its 450,000 tpy No. 5 naphtha The facility is one of the Indonesian gov-
cracker in Kaohsiung in 2015 and has been ernment’s 245 strategic projects, which
working to move it to Indonesia ever since. The include harbours, refineries and gas distribu-
Taiwanese refiner actually first mooted the idea tion networks.™

Week 22 04•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7