Govt to appoint more than one companies as gas aggregators

The government will appoint more than one state owned company to act gas aggregators in order to ensure the business will be carried fairly and expansively across the country.

?If there is only one aggregator, it will be unfair. If possible, there are two gas aggregators in view of the vast size of our country,? Director General of Oil and Gas IGN Wiratmaja said in a statement on Wednesday.

A presidential regulation is being finalized at the Office of Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs to regulate the matter, he said.

The function of gas aggregator is explained in the National Gas Policy Roadmap for 2014-2030 issued by the ministry. According to the roadmap, the gas aggregators functions to ensure the availability of gas in the country, keep the price at affordable level, aggregate the imported and locally-produced gas.

In details, the gas aggregator have functions as follows:
1. Buying gas allocations produced by oil and as contractors as determined by the minister of energy and mineral resources (MEMR)
2. Importing gas to meet domestic needs
3. Building transmission and/or distribution infrastructures in line with tender results or direct appointment by regulator.
4. Aggregating gas price for the government to determine
5. Submitting proposal to the MEMR on base gas selling prices for each category of consumers in each aggregation zone in consideration of upstream price, investment cost, operating cost, tax, dues and margin.
6. Guaranteeing the economics of business entities which own and/or control gas transmission segment by reserving the capacity of their pipelines.
7. Selling gas to consumers or companies which hold special right to distribute gas in certain areas.
8. May take over the gas purchasing agreement from state owned firms which purchase gas (PLN, Pupuk Indonesia, Pertagas, PGN) or regional state owned firms (BUMD) which are licensed to produce power or supply gas for power producers.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon