Released on 04/01/13

Indonesia’s state-owned refiner Pertamina has delayed the start-up of its new 178,000 tonne/year propylene facility at Balongan in West Java to February from January this year, a company source said on Friday.

He did not mention the reasons for the postponement but the start-up of the residual catalytic cracking off-gas to propylene (ROPP) unit was previously delayed several times because of technical problems.

The source said the new ROPP unit was expected to produce around 9,000 tonnes of propylene per month in the initial phase.

Separately, Pertamina also operates a residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) at the same site. The unit is currently producing around 200-250 tonnes of propylene per day –less than half of its usual output – because of problems with the heat exchanger, the source added.

Source ICIS News