31-10-06 State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is eyeing equity participation in Indonesian petrochemical firm Tuban Petrochemical Industries, which owns a giant $ 3 bn petrochemical complex. A detailed proposal will be put up for approval in the next board meeting of the company, senior IOC officials said.
The company already has a memorandum of collaboration with the leading Indonesian oil and gas firm Medco Energi International for jointly acquiring exploration and production assets in India, Indonesia and third countries.

Company officials disclosed that Medco is planning to set up a green field refinery project in Indonesia and IOC has shown its initial interest to evaluate the opportunity. Around 70 % of Tuban Petrochemical is owned by the government of Indonesia. The other shareholders of the Tuban complex are Pertamina, Itochu, Tuban Petrochemicals (a subsidiary of Thailand's largest conglomerate Siam Cement), and Sojitz (formerly Nissho Iwai).
"Indonesia imports significant quantitiesof aromatic products like benzene, toluene, xylene and polypropylene. IOC is presently fast expanding its presence in petrochemicals industry and the proposal jives well with IOC's globalisation plan," a senior official said.

The Tuban petrochemical plant has a combined capacity of 3.6 mm tpy of petrochemicals products, comprising 1 mm tpy of aromatics (500,000 ton paraxylene, 200,000 ton benzene, and 150,000 ton toluene), 1 mm tpy of naphtha, and 1.6 mm tpy of kerosene and diesel.
Indonesia is the largest petroleum market in the ASEAN region, currently estimated at 50 mm tpy of petroleum products. To pursue upcoming opportunities in the Indonesian petroleum retail sector, IOC already has in place its board approval for setting up a wholly owned subsidiary in Indonesia.