The Iranian government is looking for opportunities to establish refineries in Indonesia, where demand for oil is growing faster than the ability to secure hydrocarbons.
On Thursday, the representatives of Iran's Oil Ministry met with the newly-appointed Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said to discuss the issue, Jakarta Post reported.
Acting director general for oil and gas at the ministry, Naryanto Wagimin, who accompanied the minister during the meeting, said the Middle East country was seeking to invest in Indonesia, particularly in refineries, petrochemicals and liquefied natural gas.
"It's still at the initial stage. We will need a further meeting to discuss the realization of their plan. We welcome them. We will have a working group meeting to follow this up," he said.
Naryanto added that Iran's oil characteristics suited the country's oil refinery in Cilacap, Central Java.
Indonesia has six refineries nationwide, which are operated by state-owned PT Pertamina. The refineries are old and are running below capacity. The country has not built any new refineries since 1994, when former president Suharto inaugurated a refinery in Balongan, West Java.
Poor refinery facilities have increased the country's dependency on oil import, which has hurt its economy.
Moreover, declining national oil production has also become a national concern.
Indonesia, a former member of OPEC, has seen oil consumption reach around 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), while national output is below 800,000 bpd.
Prior to their visit on Thursday, Iranian oil company Nakhle Barani Pardis (NBP) sealed an agreement with PT Kreasindo Resources Indonesia for a planned $3 billion investment of the construction of oil refineries in West Java and Banten.
Under the deal, NBP also agreed to supply up to 300,000 bpd of crude to be processed in the refineries for a 20-year period.
