By WAEL MAHDI and MOHAMMED ALY SERGIE

Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are near an agreement to build their first jointly-owned refinery in the Southeast Asian country, according to Indonesia’s Energy Minister Sudirman Said.

The refinery is tentatively planned to have capacity of 300,000 bpd, with the contract signing expected by the end of this year, the minister said in an interview in Doha on Monday before heading for Riyadh. He declined to give a cost estimate.

The refinery could be the first outcome of Indonesia’s formal acceptance as a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Its representative attended OPEC’s governor meeting last week, Said said. 

OPEC will announce Indonesia’s membership at its Dec. 4 meeting in Vienna, he and OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said. The Asian nation suspended membership in January 2009 after becoming a net importer of oil.

Indonesia will become a net importer of crude by 2020 as the country plans to add new refinery capacity, according to a BMI Research report in October. State oil producer PT Pertamina agreed with Saudi Aramco and JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. to upgrade two refineries, each requiring $5 billion of investments, theJakarta Post reported in October, citing President Director Dwi Soetjipto.