BP embarks on Indonesian project
15 Jan 2000
BP Chemicals has formed a joint venture to build an ambitious organic solvents complex in Indonesia. Starting with a single plant, the complex will eventually cover a wide range of solvents. The companies have not disclosed the scale of the investment.
BP's partner in the project is an Indonesian-owned firm, PT Inter Petrindo Inti Citra. The partners will each hold half of the capital in the joint venture, which will be known as PR Citra Pacific International Esters. All the plants are to be sited at Cilegon, West Java.
The first plant to be built will be an esterification plant, producing 50 000tpa of ethyl or butyl acetate. This will be supplied by acetic acid from another BP joint-venture in Malaysia, which will start up some months after the esterification plant; in the meantime, the acid will be sourced from the open market.
As the regional ethyl acetate market develops, the partners plan to build 120 000tpa plant making the compound by direct addition of ethylene and acetic acid, a new process which BP announced earlier this year (see PE Sept, p25). This, the company explains, is because of a lack of competitively-priced ethanol feedstock in the region. The plant is scheduled for start-up in 2000.
Meanwhile, the companies are embarking on a feasibility study for yet another plant, a 25 000tpa unit to make high-purity ethanol. This will be targeted at customers in the pharmaceutical and speciality chemicals sectors.
The thinking behind the project is to use BP assets to provide low-cost, high-quality products, explains BP's business manager for oxygenated solvents in Asia, Sandy Duncan. 'BP's aim is to develop a major solvents business in Asia, and this Indonesian venture complements our existing and future investments in North East Asia and China.' It also allows the company to capitalise on the 10-15 per cent per year growth of the Indonesian paints and adhesives industries, comments Indonesia chemicals development director Jim Hay.
