Jakarta: Indonesia's downstream oil and gas regulator BPH Migas has said that the nation would need at least 3 oil refineries in order to boost Indonesia's fuel reserves.

BPH Migas official Saryono Hadiwidjoyo said on Monday that the establishment of refineries would help the nation to cut fuel subsidy expenditure as it would no longer require to import oil.

BPH Migas said that one refinery having a processing capacity of 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day would cost between US$6 billion and US$8 billion.

The state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina operates six refineries, with capability of processing 1.157 million barrels of crude oil per day into 704,000 bpd of gasoline.

As country's gasoline need currently stands at 1.16 million bpd, Pertamina has to import gasoline to meet the demand, said Saryono.

Copyright 2012 Indonesia Government News, distributed by Contify.com. All Rights Reserved.

(Originally published July 19, 2012, in Indonesia Government News.)