Indonesia’s PT Pertamina (Persero) has agreed to form a joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco, to upgrade and expand Pertamina’s Cilacap refinery. Cilacap is Indonesia’s largest refinery complex and has undergone several upgrades and expansion since 1976.

“The refinery will be one of the largest in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Pertamina President Director Dwi Soetjipto. Dwi said the project will start as early as next year.

Pertamina and Aramco together will invest USD 5.5 billion in the joint venture. The Pertamina-Aramco joint venture will boost Cilacap’s processing capacity from 348,000 to 460,000 barrels per day (bpd) and it will be able to process sour crude from Saudi Arabia, which has higher sulphur content. The deal includes an agreement to import Saudi Crude.

The refinery will be equipped with a hydrocracker unit to produce higher value products.

Tempo reported that Pertamina and Aramco will sign the front-end engineering design (FEED) for Cilacap on Nov. 26.