Saudi Aramco-Pertamina refinery offers first contract

State-owned oil producer Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) and Indonesia’s oil company Pertamina have awarded the first contract in their $5 billion joint venture Cilacap refinery upgrade, Aramco said in a statement Monday.

The engineering and project management services contract to conduct the basic engineering design study for the upgrade of Cilacap refinery in central Java has been awarded to Amec Foster Wheeler Energy Limited, it said.

Pertamina chief executive Dwi Soetjipto said on Monday that Aramco will supply 270,000 barrels per day of crude to Cilacap.

The Indonesian oil company will own around 55-60 percent of the Cilacap Refinery upgrade project, he added.

The project has been under negotiation for years and the two parties finally agreed terms in November to raise capacity at Cilacap by about 6 per cent, to 370,000 barrels per day, and enable it to process more sour crude oil grades and produced a wider slate of products.