Govt lowers gas prices for Muara Karang, Priok power plants
Monday, January 8 2001 - 05:00 AM WIB
The government has finally agreed to reduce prices of natural gas sold to Muara Karang and Tanjung Priok power plants by US$0.32 per MMBTU (Million Metric British Therman Unit) to $2.13 from $2.45, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Monday.
Director for operation of the state electricity company PLN Tunggono said on Saturday that the agreement was made after tight negotiations between the special team from the electricity company and the ministry of finance.
"I was told by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiuantoro that the the prices of gas sold to Muara Karang and Priok plants had been lowered to $2.13 per MMBTU," he was quoted by the daily as saying.
Tunggono said that the price reduction would be given only to Muara Karang and Tanjung Priok power plants while other plants such as steam-fired Gresik power plant was exempt from the new price agreement.
"What we hope is that the government also reduced the price of gas for Gresik power plant because the gas sold to Gresik is higher at $2.6 per MMBTU. The Gresik power plant also uses a larger amount of gas," he said.
According Tunggono, the price of gas supplied to Muara Karang and Tanjung Priok was still high despite the reduction, especially if compared to the prices of gas sold to fertilizer producers.
Ideally, according to him, the price of gas sold to power plants should bet set at $1.5 per MMBTU or at least not higher than $2 per MMBTU.(*)