Gas sales to Singapore up by 100 percent

The volume of natural gas transmitted to Singapore through the Singapore-Batam-South Sumatra gas pipeline increased sharply during the first six months of this year due to the growing demand from the neighboring country.

State owned gas distribution company PGN reported on Saturday in June, the gas transmitted to Singapore through its Singapore-Batam-South Sumatra pipeline had reach 205.5 million cubic feet per day (MMSCFD), an increase of more than 100 percent from about 99.3 MMSCFD in January.

The gas transmitted to Batam through the same pipeline also increased by 27 percent to 14.4 MMSCFD in June from 11.8 MMSCFD in January, the company's public relations manager Widyatmiko Bapang said in Jakarta on Saturday.

He said that the increase in the gas volume transmitted to Singapore and Batam had partly contributed to the significant increase in PGN's revenues during the first quarter of this year.

In the January-March period, PGN's total revenues rose by 30 percent to Rp 921.5 billion from Rp 771.7 billion in the same period of last year. The revenues from the Singapore-Batam-South Sumatra pipeline which began operation in 2004 rose by 70 percent in the first quarter of this year to Rp 255.2 billion from about Rp 149 billion during the first three months of 2004. (godang)