Singapore's Aster Chemicals and Energy said on Tuesday it is investing $155 million to upgrade refining facilities at its Bukom refinery, which will increase its crude processing to 300,000 barrels per day.
The plans include a previously announced project to spend $75 million to revitalise its condensate splitter unit which it acquired in June, and $71 million on its lube oil complex to produce higher-value base oils, Aster said in a statement.
Aster will also improve Bukom’s logistics to enable the sharing of feedstocks between the Singapore facility and Chandra Asri’s petrochemical complex in Cilegon, Indonesia.
Those plans include exporting mixed C4 products to the Cilegon site and the shipping of pyrolysis gasoline back to Bukom.
Aster, a Chandra Asri-led joint venture with Glencore, is planning to start operations at the upgraded facilities in 2026.
Aster operates a 237,000-bpd refinery and petrochemical complex on Bukom Island.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Tom Hogue)
