JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia will build oil refineries on several of its islands, including Kalimantan and Sulawesi, with a total capacity of 1 million barrels per day, upgrading from a planned single refinery with a 500,000 bpd capacity, the energy minister said.
Last week, the government said it wanted to accelerate 21 natural resource processing projects worth $40 billion, including several coal gasification projects, building oil storage and expanding its oil refining capacity.
Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said late on Monday, after a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto, that the planned capacity for the new refineries would be doubled to 1 million bpd. He said Indonesia currently imports around 1 million bpd of crude oil and fuel to meet domestic demand.
Indonesia also plans to build additional oil storage with capacity of 1 million barrels to ensure energy security, Bahlil said.
Indonesia has in recent years moved to increase the processing of its natural resources onshore.
(Reporting by Dewi Kurniawati and Bernadette Christina; Editing by John Mair)
