JAKARTA. The Indonesian government will evaluate four refinery development projects and two new projects being worked on by PT Pertamina (Persero), so that the CAD (current account deficit) can be minimized.
Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs, said the evaluation would help Pertamina to obtain additional refinery capacity. For example, the RDMP Cilacap project with Saudi Aramco which is currently still at the negotiation stage.
"For Aramco, we evaluate that the difference is about US$ 1.5 billion," Panjaitan said as quoted by Kontan on Thursday (14/11) today. "If it's really that way, of course, we will look for other options," he added.
Meanwhile, Fajriyah Usman, VP of Corporate Communication of Pertamina, claimed that his party was trying to speed up the construction of the refinery to reduce cost. (KR/AR)