Govt to continue expanding gas infrastructures

The government will not extend the existing contracts of LNG exports and allocate all the national gas production for domestic market. As such, the government will keep expanding the national gas infrastructures to allow the domestic market to absorb all the gas, a senior official of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said.

?We now export (most of our) gas in the form of LNG. As long as we don?t have enough LNG receiving terminals in the country, we will never stop exporting gas,? Director of Oil and Gas Program Oversight at the Directorate General of Oil and Gas Agus Cahyono Adi said on Monday, as quoted i the press release sent on Wednesday.

As such, Agus said the government will push for the development of LNG infrastructures in the country through virtual pipeline scheme. ?The LNG will be supplied in small, medium, large scales depending on the demand,? he said.

The LNG receiving terminals will be built either floating or onshore in several areas, such as Central Java, West Java and eastern Indonesia, Agus said, adding the government expects the terminals will be built by the private sector.

Aside from LNG receiving terminals, the government will also build more pipelines to create wide pipeline networks, he said.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon