East Java remains in shortage of gas supply
Tuesday, October 10 2006 - 01:56 AM WIB
State gas distribution firm's PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) CEO WMP Simanjuntak said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the additional supply from the Santos field which was expected to gradually increase to 100 million standard cubic feet per day by the end of this year would raise the total gas supply in the province to 180 million standard cubic feet per day.
"The total volume of the gas supply will be only enough to meet 60 percent of the gas demand in the province which is estimated to reach 300 standard cubic feet per day," he said.
He said that the supply of the gas would further decline in next year due to the depletion of the gas reserves in the several gas fields owned by existing suppliers such as Lapindo, Kodeco, EMP Kangean and Santos.
According to him, the gas supply from Lapindo had for example dropped to 36 million cubic feet per day from about 48 million cubic feet per day. "Next year, the supply from Lapindo could further decline to 30 million cubic feet per day," he added.
In order to ensure future supply, PGN has negotiated for the possibility of getting additional gas supply from newly developed gas fields including those operated by Husky, EMP Terang Sirasun and Amerada Hess.
"We expect to get the additional gas supply in 2008 but we are still in talk about this and PGN is trying to have a talk with Exxon. We hope that its Cepu block can produce gas soon," Simanjuntak said.
Early of this month PGN lifted the gas quota for industry in East Java following the additional supply of gas from Maleo field, Madura Offshore PSC operated by Santos. (godang)