Indonesia’s state-owned petrochemical giant, PT Pertamina (Persero, Jakarta; www.pertamina.com), has inked an agreement with the country’s insolvent refinery and petrochemicals group PT Trans-Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI, Tuban), which has TPPI restarting a petchems hub located in East Java. The agreement has been limited to six months, according to international news agency Reuters.

Pertamina's goal with the plant, which TPPI idled two years ago amid growing debt, is to help reduce the country’s dependence on petrochemical imports. The re-start is seen as a major step in potentially lowering Indonesia’s account deficit, which has seen import costs rise amid a weak rupiah.

The recommissioned lines include a fairly large aromatics hub, which based on data in the Plasteurope.com database Polyglobe (www.polyglobe.net), indicates capacities for more than 500,000 t/y of PX, 210,000 t/y of benzene as well as 100,000 t/y of toluene.