Indonesian, Iranian companies cooperate in building oil refinery

PT Kreasindo Resources Indonesia and Iran-based Nakhle Barani Pardis on Tuesday agreed to cooperate in building an oil refinery in Indonesia, a company executive said here. President Director of Kreasindo Resources Indonesia Rudy Radjab and Managing Director of Nakhle Barani Pardis Hasan Khisrow inked a memorandum of understanding on the cooperation at JW Marriot hotel here earlier in the day. The refinery, worth about 3 billion U.S. dollars, would have a daily refining capacity of about 300,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran, Radjab said. "We will wait for further result of a study," he said after signing the document. "It (the Iranian company) is committed to supply up to 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day. This is a cooperation that will be realized in the near future," said Radjab. Indonesia's refining capacity now stands at 1 million barrels per day, which can meet about 75 percent of its total domestic oil demand. The largest economic in Southeast Asia is trying to scale up dwindling oil output. The country quit the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2008 as it became a net oil importer of the commodity due to protracted decline in oil production in its aging oil fields. For this year alone, the country's oil lifting (after sold) is expected to reach 804,000 barrels per day, lower than the energy and mineral resources ministry assumption of about 820,000 barrels. Both figures are below the target at the state budget of 870,000 barrels. Indonesia has a proven oil reserve of 3.7 billion barrels and a natural gas reserve of 104 trillion cubic feet.