Gas supply to East Java returns to normal: PGN
Saturday, June 22 2002 - 03:45 AM WIB
Trijono, the general manager of PGN?s East Java operation, said in Surabaya on Friday that the natural gas supply had returned to the normal level of 56 million standard cubic per day (MMSCFD this week after BP Indonesia raised the gas supply from its Kangean gas wells.
He said that the gas supply from BP Indonesia had dropped to 45 MMSCFD during the past several months due to a drop in BP?s oil production in the Kangean wells.
The decline in the gas supply has caused acute shortage in PGN?s supply to industrial users. Many companies which rely on gas to support their operation have been forced to reduce production activities due to the lack of gas.
"We hope industrial users will be able to operate normally beginning this week," he said. He, however, said that many of PGN?s industrial customers had opposed the plan to raise the gas price to US$2.80 per million British thermal unit (MMBTU).
Besides from BP, PGN also received gas supply of about 22 MMSCFD from Lapindo Brantas.
Lapindo Brantas said recently that the company would invest another US$6.4 million to develop four new gas wells in Sidoarjo, East Java. The new gas wells will increase its gas production by 100 percent to 42 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) beginning September this year.
The company said the development of the gas wells were underway. "At present, the company is installing a 7 kilometer pipeline for the distribution of the gas," the company?s manager Nanang Sudiro said. (*)