Baihaki calls for more gas supply to domestic market
Thursday, October 24 2002 - 10:52 AM WIB
?Gas from East Kalimantan should be for the domestic market, while gas from Tangguh and Donggi can be for exports,? Baihaki said in a seminar in Jakarta.
Baihaki argued that acute gas supply shortage would continue to occur in the country?s domestic market in the coming years if no significant measures were taken to address it.
Gas produced in East Kalimantan is mostly liquefied for exports at a huge plant in Bontang operated by PT Badak NGL Co which is owned by Pertamina, Vico, TotalFinalElf, and Japan Indonesia LNG Company (JILCO). LNG from Bontang goes to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, gas from Tangguh, Papua province will go China?s Fujian province starting from 2007 shortly after the Tangguh LNG plant starts commercial operation. Under the 25-year supply contract signed with China in September, 2.6 million tons of LNG from Tangguh will be shipped annually to China. The Philippines has expressed interest to buy LNG from the Tangguh plant, which is operated by a consortium led by BP Plc.
It remains unclear exactly when Pertamina together with other investors will start developing gas blocks in Donggi, Central Sulawesi where massive gas reserves have been discovered. The plan is that gas from Donggi fields will go to U.S. West Coast.
Natural gas is also produced in Arun, Aceh province with Exxon Mobil Indonesia, a subsidiary of world oil giant ExxonMobil Corporation, being the operator of area gas fields. LNG turned out by PT Arun NGL Co. is shipped to Japan and South Korea and Taiwan.
The government had planned to encourage local consumers to use more natural gas in order to reduce fuel consumption, hoping that investors will be willing to invest their capital in pipeline projects.
The government will soon conduct a feasibility study on a project to transmit natural gas through undersea pipelines from East Kalimantan to East Java, where acute gas supply shortage has occurred over the past months. (godang)