JAKARTA. State-owned oil and gas giant PT Pertamina sealed on Wednesday partnership agreements with three firms to upgrade and increase the capacities of its five refineries by twofold.

The partnerships involve Saudi Aramco, China's SINOPEC and Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy. Under its partnership with Saudi Aramco, the two firms will cooperate to upgrade three refineries, namely Dumai in Riau, Cilacap in Central Java and Balongan in West Java.

Its partnership with SINOPEC involves the upgrade of the Plaju refinery in South Sumatra, while its cooperation with JX Nippon will include works on its Balikpapan refinery in East Kalimantan.

"Today we signed the memoranda of understanding [MoUs] and within the next six months we have to complete the contracts of work [CoWs]. Pertamina will work to boost the economic value of the refineries," Pertamina president director Dwi Soetjipto said after the signing ceremony.

The projects are expected to be completed within four years with total estimated cost of US$25 billion.

Works on the refineries are aimed at increasing the total capacity to process 1.68 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) from the current effective capacity of 820,000 (bopd). (Raras Cahyafitri)

Editor: Hendra Gunawan