Govt wants quick development of Kalimantan-Java gas pipeline

The government will push plans to construct giant gas pipeline linking East Kalimantan and East Java in order to solve gas shortage on the nation?s most developed island.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie said on Tuesday that the government was likely to put the project on tender to speed up the development of the project.

?If there are more than one company which are interested in the project, we shall open tender for the project,? he said.

State gas distributor PT PGN has long planned to undertake the project and has even carried out feasibility study on it. Yet, the firm is apparently giving less attention to the project as it is now concentrating on its gas pipeline projects linking Sumatra and western part of Java, which are now under construction.

Aburizal said the government would like the gas pipeline to stretch from East Kalimantan to East Java and continues to Semarang in Central Java.

Java, which is the nation?s industrial center, is now facing gas shortage due to declining gas output from fields around the island and the non-existence of pipelines to transmit gas from gas-rich areas in Kalimantan and Sumatra. (Godang)