CILACAP. State owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina on Thursday officially launched the operation of a Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) refinery in Cilacap, Central Java to process the refinery's byproducts into value-added products.

The Cilacap IV RFCC, that was officially launched by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, will process 62,000 barrels per day of low sulfur waxy residue (LSWR), which is generated from the crude distillation unit (CDU) II into valuable products, such as intermediate gasoline namely HOMC, LPG and propylene.

Pertamina President Director Dwi Soetjipto said that apart from creating valuable products, the Cilacap RFCC project provided jobs to 8,700 people during the construction of the project and required 400 employees for the refinery once it was in operation.

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“Cilacap RFCC also contributed taxes to the government and accelerated economic growth in the area around the project," Dwi said.

The facility, with an investment value of US$ 846.89 million, started production on Sept. 30. The RFCC can produce 1,066 tons of LPG per day, 430 tons of propylene per day and about 37,000 barrels of HOMC per day.

The HOMC will be processed into Premium gasoline. Currently,the Cilacap refinery produces 61,000 barrels of Premium gasoline per day. In line with the RFCC operation, the premium gasoline production will rise to 91,000 barrels per day.

Dwi added that Pertamina was committed to continuously upgrading and developing the Cilacap refinery and those in other regions to improve their efficiency so that Pertamina’s products would be more competitive in the increasingly open market.

Meanwhile, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that the government gave its full support to any efforts to achieve national energy resiliency, including through increasing domestic oil production.

"Indonesia should be able to reduce fuel imports gradually. Pertamina has been increasing and will increase the refinery's capacity. We are optimistic that one day Indonesia will not have a need to import fuel," said Kalla in a press statement.