wheeze flan: Indonesia group plans $4.8 bln refinery with Azeri oil firm

Thursday, October 18, 2012

JAKARTA, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Indonesia's OSO Group plans to

build a $4.8 billion oil refinery in a joint venture with the

State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), a

partnership it hopes to formalise in November, a top OSO

official said on Wednesday.

The target for the refinery is to process 600,000 bpd when

it opens in 2017. It would be located on part of OSO's

concession in a free trade zone next to Batam island from where

it could take advantage of busy east Asian shipping lanes.

"We are going to refine all the group oil from Azerbaijan.

The purpose is to trade or sell the processed oil to Indonesia

or any other Asia-Pacific country," Mariano Asril, CEO of the

OSO Group, told Reuters.

"It would be funding from both (sides) but mostly from the

Azerbaijan side but we will provide them with all the

facilities, the permit, the land and everything," Asril said,

adding that OSO hoped to sign a memorandum of understanding with

Socar in November.

The refinery would be a departure for OSO, a non-listed

holding company whose diversified portfolio includes mining,

palm oil, hotels, airline ground services and fisheries. OSO

trades as PT Citra Putra Mandiri, according to the group's

website.

SOCAR has joint ventures with other international partners

but this would be its first project in Indonesia.

(Reporting by Matthew Bigg and Fergus Jensen; editing by Keiron

Henderson)

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