PLN may import gas for the Muara Tawar power plant Alfian , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 04/06/2010 10:30 AM | Business
State power firm PT PLN may import as much as 200 billion British thermal units of gas per day (BBTUD) to cope with the gas shortage at its Muara Tawar power plant in Bekasi, West Java.
PLNs primary energy director Nur Pamudji said the company was looking for gas producers that can supply the amount of gas for more than 10 years.
We are inviting both domestic and overseas gas producers to participate in a tender, he said.
Nur Pamudji said PLN would officially open the tender within the next two weeks.
He added that the appointed supplier would need about 18 months to construct the gas distribution facilities, including the receiving terminals if the gas is supplied in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
We estimate that the power plant can receive the gas by mid 2012, Nur Pamudji said.
The Muara Tawar power plant is a combined cycle power plant using both diesel oil and gas.
The plant receives gas from state gas distributor PT PGN. PLN said the available gas supply had dropped to 100 BBTUD since early March this year from an average of 250 BBTUD in 2009.
Although Nur Pamudji said the gas procurement contract was also open for domestic producers, upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas confirmed earlier that no gas supply from domestic sources was available to meet the gas shortage at the Muara Tawar power plant.
Gas for the power plant is supplied from PGNs pipelines from Sumatra and, as we know, the gas fields in Sumatra are aging fields with declining production, BPMigas head of public relations Sulistya Hastuti Wahyu said on March 25.
He added that new gas could only be supplied to the power plant when the LNG receiving terminals, to be prepared by PGN and state oil and gas company PT Pertamina, are completed.
PGN and Pertamina are preparing three LNG terminals in North Sumatra, West Java, and East Java. The terminals are expected to be in operations by September 2011.
However, Nur Pamudji said the terminal prepared by PGN and Pertamina in West Java was not for the Muara Tawar power plant, but for the Tanjung Priok and Muara Karang power plants. Thus the appointed gas supplier for Muara Tawar will need to construct a separate terminal.
PLN power plants will need as much as 2,432 BBTUD of gas in 2010, but the company has only secured a supply, so far, of 1,471 BBTUD. As for next year, the companys gas demand will increase to 2,516 BBTUD but PLN has so far obtained supply commitments for 1,401 BBTUD.
The short term solution for the gas shortage at the Muara Tawar power plant will be that PLN will procure more oil-based fuels. But this will be much more expensive than gas.
Nur Pamudji said that PLN would soon open tenders for procurement of 1 million kiloliters oil-based fuels. Most of this will be designated for the Muara Tawar power plant.
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