Pertamina and Repsol announced yesterday that they will cooperate to build a unit that produces treated distillate aromatic extracts at Pertaminas fuel refinery in Cilacap, Indonesia. The plant will have capacity to make 60,000 metric tons per year of aromatic extracts, primarily to be marketed as rubber process oils in Southeast Asia.
The plant is scheduled to come on stream in 2019, the companies said. Pertamina, which is Indonesias national oil company, and Spain-based Repsol said they spent two years cooperating on an initiative to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of the project.
Aromatic extracts are a by-product of lubricating base oil refining and are used as blending agents in heavy fuel oils, as feedstocks in the production of carbon black and resins, and in the manufacture of rubber and plastics. Treated distillate aromatic extracts (TDAE) is one of two main categories, the other being residual aromatic extracts.
Pertaminas Cilicap refinery includes a base oil plant with capacity to make 450,000 t/y of API Group I stocks. The Indonesian company is partnering with Saudi Aramco on a large refinery retrofit that will enable an upgrade of the base oil plant.
In announcing their agreement yesterday, Repsol and Pertamina emphasized that both companies have experience producing and marketing aromatic extracts and are already in the rubber process oils market.