Pertamina Planning to Start Up New Polypropylene Plant in 2011

Pertamina, Indonesia's state-run refinery operator is planning to start up its new 250,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant at Balongan, Indonesia in early 2011. Pertamina is under huge expansion and and rumours of it planning to acquire local polypropylene producer, Polytama Propindo has also been rumoured.

The feedstock for the plant will be coming from Pertamina's new 250,000 tonnes/year of propylene capacity residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) expansion unit in Balongan.

Japan Offers Coal-to-Gas Technology for Gas Supply

Japan, one of heavy energy users, offering Indonesia with technology that would allow it to produce gas from coal, in exchange for a stable supply of liquefied natural gas to Japan. The offer comes from Japan Gas Association especially since Indonesia is the largest liquefied natural gas exporter to Japan by volume and recently has been saying that it may cut LNG exports to Japan to meet its own domestic demand.

Indonesia's state-owned energy company, Pertamina, will reduce LNG exports to Japan to 3 million-5 million tons a year from 2011 from about 12 million tons a year now.

The development of the coal-to-gas technology for commercial use in turn can save Japan from the energy crisis. Indonesia is known to have an abundance source of coal.

Qatar & Malaysia Replace Pertamina LNG

Taiwan's CPC Corp which managed to secure 5.25 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas supplies from Qatar and Malaysia is not seeking new contracts from expiring contracts with Indonesia's Pertamina. This comes after Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina announced discontinued renew of supply agreements with Taiwan and South Korea to supply 1.54 million metric tons of LNG that will begin expiring this year due to declining gas production at its aging fields.

CPC has signed a 25-year contract with Qatar-based RASGAS (Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Co) for a 3 million metric tons LNG supply, as well as the long-term contract with Malaysia LNG, a subsidiary of Malaysia's national petroleum company, Petronas Gas Bhd amounting 2.25 million metric tons of LNG, which will expire in March 2015. On top of that, Taiwan CPC has a 2 million tons supply deal with Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd.