Indonesia’s 120,000 barrel-per- day (bpd) Dumai refinery is running at 60 per cent capacity due to a technical upset, with two gasoline-making units shut completely, a Pertamina official said.

Two platforming units that turn naphtha into gasoline – one of 8,000 bpd and the other of 6,000 bpd – are both closed down, Pertamina processing director Suroso Atmomartoyo said.
He said last month that the smaller unit was due to be closed for planned maintenance from around June 20, although that was not meant to affect operations elsewhere in the plant.
Pertamina, which often has to increase spot fuel imports when it has trouble with domestic refineries, hopes to resume full operations at Dumai soon, he said, but gave no time frame.
“This is an emergency shutdown because cooling water is not working about two days ago. We have repaired that and we have restarted the CDU at 60 per cent capacity,” Atmomartoyo said.
Another Pertamina official said unexpected shutdown of Dumai refinery will certainly cut Pertamina diesel and gasoline output but not much.
“Pertamina has to make up its diesel output as a result of the shutdown of Dumai refinery,” the official, who declined to be identified, said, adding that the company may take more diesel imports in future.
Pertamina has an 85,000 bpd vacuum unit at Dumai refinery which is also being shut.
The official said the vacuum unit and platformers unit are expected to resume operation, possibly within five days.
A company official said earlier that Indonesia, which imports as much as a third of its fuel due to a lack of domestic refining capacity, would curb imports of oil products such as gasoline and diesel, to 9 million barrels in July, partly due to lower demand from state power utility PLN.