Govt considers distributing CBM to households

The government is considering building infrastructures allowing Coal Bed Methane (CBM) producers to distribute their products to households, a top official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has said.

At present, Vico, the operator of the Sanga-Sanga CBM block in East Kalimantan, which is the only CBM block in the country that has come into production, delivers its CBM to a power plant to meet the power needs of the local community.

Director General of Oil and Gas Edy Hermantoro said CBM could be suitable for households since households do not need a high volume of gas. A 0.5 mmscfd of CBM will be enough for 20,000 households and 4,000 households need only 0.2 mmscfd of CBM, he explained.

?If the budget is already available, the government will build the pipeline infrastructures (to distribute CBM to households),? Edy said in Blora, Central Java, according to a statement from the ministry.

According to the ministry, CBM has been developed since 2008 in the country. Now the production has only reached 1 mmscfd. The government has signed 54 CBM contracts. Indonesia is believed to have 453 tcf of cbm resources, spread in South Sumatra (187 tcf), Barito (101.6 tcf), Kutai (80.4 tcf) and central Sumatra (52.5 tcf)

Editing by Johannes Simbolon