TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
No oil, gas supply to Balongan for a week: SKK Migas
The upstream industry regulator has announced an emergency stoppage of oil and gas supply to the Balongan refinery, where two tanks were still on fire as of Wednesday morning.
Change Size
T
he Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) block operated by Pertamina has stopped supplying oil and gas to the Balongan refinery in Indramayu, West Java, after the refinery was shut down following a raging inferno that started around 1 a.m. on Monday.
Read also: Balongan refinery fire: Pertamina shuts down facility, authorities evacuate hundreds
The Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKK Migas) released a statement on Tuesday announcing that the ONWJ block was expected to cut supplying the refinery with 10 metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas it used for internal operations.
The state-owned oil and gas giant operates both the ONWJ block and the Balongan refinery through its respective subsidiaries, PT Pertamina Hulu Energi Offshore North West Java (PHE ONWJ) and PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (KPI).
“Following SKK Migas’ coordination with Pertamina, the [gas supply] stoppage is expected to last one week,” SKK Migas spokesperson Susana Kurniasih said in the statement.
She added that the joint mitigation measures would ensure that “the Balongan refinery fire will not affect Indonesia's oil production”.
Maintaining steady output at the block is key to fulfilling Indonesia’s 2030 energy target of producing 1 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) and 12,300 mmscfd of gas as part of the government’s bid to shrink the trade deficit.
Read also: Indonesia aims to double gas production by 2030 with major projects in pipeline
The ONWJ block is the country’s fifth most productive oil block and 15th most productive gas block, producing 28,893 bopd and 94 mmscfd of gas as of Sept. 30, 2020, according to the latest SKK Migas data.
The industry regulator added that the Balongan refinery fire would not affect the block’s oil output, as the offshore facility had a sufficient number of crude oil tanks. Pertamina also planned to reroute its oil supply to other refineries, including the Cilacap refinery.
Pertamina’s refinery in Cilacap is its largest with an installed capacity of 348,000 bopd, while Balongan is the company's fifth largest refinery with an installed capacity of 125,000 bopd.
At a press conference on Monday, Pertamina logistics, supply chain and infrastructure director Mulyono said the company would ramp up operations at the Cilacap and Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI) refineries in Central Java as an alternative to the Balongan refinery, which primarily produced fuel for Jakarta and parts of West Java.
“The capacity [at Cilacap] can be raised to 300,000 bpd. The TPPI’s can be raised to 500,000 bpd,” he added.
While SKK Migas did not disclose the volume of oil the block supplied to Balongan, it noted that the refinery received its oil supply from the ONWJ’s Cinta field, the Jatibarang field in West Java, the Duri and Minas fields in Riau and the Banyu Urip Field in Central Java.
