Pertamina in talks with Saudi Aramco for more oil-UPDATE 1

Monday April 19, 2010 12:07:04 PM GMT

JAKARTA, April 19 (Reuters) - Indonesia's state oil firm PT Pertamina is in talks with Saudi state oil giant Saudi Aramco to import 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) of crude oil, Pertamina's president director, Karen Agustiawan, said on Monday.

Pertamina currently imports 125,000 bpd of crude oil from Saudi but wants to import more crude oil to feed its Balongan refinery, Agustiawan told reporters.

Pertamina had planned to expand capacity at the Balongan refinery in West Java, and the extra oil imports will be used to boost Balongan capacity to 325,000 bpd, from 125,000 bpd currently, she said.

"It will be Arabian light crude which will be imported for Balongan refinery," Agustiawan said.

"We want the extra imports to be executed this year although expansion work at Balongan is not finished yet. We can use the crude for other refineries," Agustiawan said.

Pertamina's nine refineries have a combined capacity of around 1 million bpd, but only supply 70 percent of domestic oil product consumption, while 30 percent comes from imports. (Reporting by Muklis Ali; Writing by Fitri Wulandari; Editing by Sara Webb)

Source: http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Pertamina-in-talks-with-Saudi-Aramco-for-more-oil-2010-04-19T040712Z-UPDATE-1