The upgrade at PT Pertamina's Balikpapan refinery will increase production to 360 MMbpd

These works are part of the Refinery Development Master Plans (RDMP) launched by PT Pertamina to revitalize the Cilacap, Balongan, Dumai and Balikpapan refineries to improve their production capacity and competitiveness.

Sarens is playing a major role in these works, which will be completed in 2024, by taking responsibility for the installation of 1,300 items throughout the plant, weighing approximately 43,000 tons at the inside bounday area and 13,700 at the outside bounday area thanks to the use of eight of its cranes.

Thanks to the lifting operation of the residual fluid catalytic cracking unit (RFCC), which contains a first-stage generator weighing 1,198.9 tons and a second-stage generator weighing 902.5 tons, Sarens is now part of the heavy lifting history in Indonesia, as this regenerator is the largest unit currently in existence in the country.

The PT Pertamina (Persero) refinery in the Indonesian town of Balikpapan will increase its production of oil derivatives to 360 MMbpd once its upgrading and improvement works are completed during 2024. These works are part of the Refiney Development Master Plans (RDMP) promoted by Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company to increase the production capacity and competitiveness of five of its plants in Cilacap, Balongan, Dumai and Balikpapan.

The Balikpapan plant is currently the second largest refinery belonging to PT Pertamina, and is responsible, with approximately 260 million barrels per day produced, for 25% of Indonesia's oil & gas exploitation. Thanks to the upgrading works that are part of the company's RDPMs, this plant will not only decisively increase its production, but will also increase the added value of its products, which will become cleaner and greener to align with the Indonesian government's strategy to implement the Euro V standard in the country by 2027.

Sarens, world leader in heavy lifting, engineered transport and crane rental, is playing a major role in these upgrades and improvements, taking responsibility for the installation of 1,300 items throughout the plant, including, among others, the residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit, which contains a first-stage regenerator weighing 1,198.9 tons and a second-stage regenerator weighing 902.5 tons. This operation, which required the use of an SGC-90 ring crane and a CC-8800-1 crawler crane, has enabled Sarens to make heavy lifting history in Indonesia, as the regenerator is the largest unit currently in existence in the country.

In total, Sarens is expected to move approximately 43,000 tons at the inside boundary area (ISBL) and 13,700 tons at the outside boundary area (OSBL), using up to eight different crane models, including, in addition to the SGC-90 ring crane and the CC-8800-1 crawler crane, units such as the CC-2800-1 or the CC-2500 and auxiliary equipment such as Goldhofers.

One of the most demanding tasks faced so far by the Sarens technical team was the need to move the SGC-90 ring crane for use on two different jobs in the plant. To do this, the Sarens team used 2x30 axle lines SPMTs (Self-Propelled Modular Transports) to transport the main deck and, when the second location was ready, the SPMTs completed their transport approximately 800 meters from the initial location. The remaining components were moved to the new location by two Goldhofer units with 10 axle lines SPMTs each, in an operation that, in total, required 32 working days.

Sarens has more than 60 years of international experience in the development and installation of strategically important projects. In the energy sector, Sarens has been recently involved in the Clean Fuel Project works in Thailand, in the lifting maneuvers of a 4,500-ton LQUP (Living Quarters and Utilities Platform) at the PTSC M&C plant in Vietnam, in the expansion of the S-Oil plant in Ulsan, South Korea, in the construction of the Petroperu refinery in Talara (Peru), and in the Skikda refinery in Algeria among others.