Saudi Aramco reaffirms commitment to Pertamina JV

Saudi Aramco’s chief executive Amin Nasser on Friday met with Elia Massa Manik, president of Pertamina in Jakarta, to reaffirm the oil giant’s commitment to the Cilacap Refinery joint venture, Aramco said on its Twitter account on Friday.

Manik was appointed president of Pertamina in March.

Aramco is looking to strengthen its international portfolio through downstream investments, in order to secure market share for its crude oil ahead of its initial public offering (IPO) in 2018, expected to be the world’s largest

The company has ramped up its investments in Asia, its biggest regional market, under the strategy, amid rising output from US shale producers.

In December 2016, Aramco signed a $6 billion deal with Pertamina to speed up the upgrade of the Cilacap refinery in central Java, which will increase the capacity to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 348,000 bpd. The project is 45 percent-owned by Aramco.

Last month, Pertamina said it was awaiting approval from Aramco to delay the upgrade to 2023 from the previously scheduled 2021.