Government to divide gas market into clusters

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources plans to divide the domestic gas market into several clusters, assigning one gas trader to a particular cluster to avoid overlapping development of gas infrastructure facilities, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

The paper quoted Agung Kuswandono, Head of the Oil and Gas Infrastructure Development Section at the ministry, as saying that there has often been overlapping of gas infrastructure development in a particular region as under the current condition all gas traders can enter any market area.

He said that to avoid this overlapping problem, one gas trader will be assign to a particular cluster.

The plan is part of an overall planned revamp of the gas trading business at home. As has been previously reported, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan plans to issue a new ministerial regulation limiting the margin of gas trader at 7 percent, and internal rate of return of 11 percent in a bid to help bring down gas price for the consumers including industries. (*)