Indonesia's national oil company Pertamina has chosen Axens to conduct a feasibility study for the modernization and capacity expansion of its Plaju refinery, located in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Pertamina said that Indonesia's existing crude oil refining capacity of over 1 million bpd is not enough to meet increasing domestic demand for motor fuels. Additionally, domestic crude production is declining, which has forced a shift to imported crude oils with higher sulfur content.

In response to this, Pertamina has launched an investment plan that includes the development and modernization of existing refineries. The target is to rapidly match the growing domestic demand and to satisfy more stringent specifications for clean fuels, according to company officials.

"The objectives of the project are to improve the Plaju refinery's competitiveness to first quartile standards in terms of gross refinery margin through sour-crude processing flexibility to increase the capacity to produce Euro IV standards gasoline and diesel," Pertamina said in a news release.

The Plaju refinery has an current capacity of 133,700 bpd, according to information on Pertamina's website.

Axens says it will develop all the engineering documentation and economic analysis for the development master plan of the refinery.