OMV AG has signed a memorandum of understanding with PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk. (CAP) and Mubadala Investment Co. to explore opportunities for collaboration in Indonesia’s petrochemical business.
Signed on July 24, the MOU outlines the parties’ intention to explore potential but unidentified opportunities to collaborate on petrochemical projects in Indonesia, OMV said.
Under terms of the MOU, the companies have agreed to set up working groups to jointly define a schedule for evaluating the opportunities.
While OMV did not directly reference the proposed projects to be considered as part of the MOU, Erwin Ciputra, president director of CAP and its subsidiary PT Chandra Asri Perkasa (CAP2), said he was pleased with Mubadala and OMV’s expressed interest to explore opportunities to invest in CAP2’s earlier announced plan to build a petrochemical complex in Indonesia.
CAP2’s proposed complex
In January, CAP2 let a contract to McDermott International Inc. to provide process technology for the proposed petrochemical complex, which will be CAP2’s second complex in the region (OGJ Online, Jan. 24, 2019).
As part of the contract, McDermott is to deliver detailed engineering of eight proprietary short residence time (SRT) ethylene cracking heaters for the steam cracker, which will produce 1.1 million tonnes/year of ethylene and 600,000 tpy of propylene using McDermott’s proprietary Lummus SRT pyrolysis heater technology.
CAP2 also previously awarded McDermott a contract to provide licensing and basic engineering of the planned complex’s ethylene plant (OGJ Online, July 2, 2018).
The complex also is to feature a butadiene extraction unit equipped to produce 175,000 tpy of butadiene using BASF Corp.-Lummus butadiene extraction technology.
CAP2’s proposed complex—which will join CAP’s existing petrochemical complex at Ciwandan, Cilegon, in Indonesia’s Banten province—comes as part of the operator’s program to boost local petrochemical production to help meet rising Indonesian demand.
CAP, itself a subsidiary of PT Barito Pacific Tbk., Jakarta, previously let a contract to McDermott to supply materials for the planned revamp of existing furnaces at the naphtha cracker of its 860,000-tpy Ciwandan ethylene plant to expand capacity to 900,000 tpy by first-quarter 2020 (OGJ Online, July 10, 2017).