Italy’s ENI to Work with Pertamina to Speed Up Palm Oil Conversion to Fuels

INDONESIAN state energy company PT Pertamina has signed agreements with Italian oil company Eni SpA to develop a so-called green refinery in Indonesia and to process a palm-based fuel mixture in Italy. The signing agreement in Rome, Italy, Wednesday (30/1/2019), included three agreements. First, construction of a joint-venture (JV) bio refinery in Indonesia. Second, a term sheet for Crude Palm Oil (CPO) processing. These two agreements were previously agreed on December 2018. The third agreement was in areas such as the circular economy, low carbon products and renewable energies. These three agreements were signed by Pertamina’s President Director Nicke Widyawati and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) ENI Claudio Descalzi, witnessed by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan. According to Budi Santoso Syarif, Pertamina’s Director of Processing, those agreement mark a milestone of energy development in Indonesia, particularly in reducing use of fossil-based energy. It is expected to reduce crude oil import which is one of Pertamina’s huge expenditure. It also expected to speed up national energy sovereignty which is one of Nawa Cita (nine government’s priority programs). “The availability of green energies produced from palm oil will become Indonesia’s huge potency in the near future,” Budi said, Thursday (31/1/2019). ENI was chosen to be Pertamina’s partner because of its reputation in this sector. Known as the world’s first example of conversion of a conventional refinery into a biorefinery, Eni unrivalled experience in converting & operating first-class bio-refinery assets in 2014. For Pertamina, this will mark new beginning to maximize the use of palm oil as fuels. The two companies are also in talks to potentially build eco-friendly refineries to produce hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in Indonesia. *** (Source: Katadata.co.id)