House asks for more natural gas supply for domestic market

House members on Thursday urged the government to supply enough natural gas to the country?s fertilizer producers and state electricity firm PLN.

?Newly found natural gas reserves should be developed soon, and there needs to be enough gas supply for fertilizer plants and PLN,? said Irwan Prayitno, chairman of the House commission in charge of energy and mineral resources, while reading the conclusion remarks of its hearing with Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Irwan pointed to large natural gas reserves discovered in remote areas, saying that the commodity should also be allocated for domestic consumption, and not for export only.

Over the past months, Indonesia?s fertilizer producers have not been able to buy enough gas because the price of the commodity is too high for them. Meanwhile, natural gas reserve depletion in BP?s Kangean Block in East Java has caused PLN and other consumers of the commodity in the region face acute gas shortage over the past months.

Presently, fertilizer makers buy natural gas at subsidized prices of between US$ 1.3 and US$1.8 per million metric british thermal unit (MMBTU).

Meanwhile, reports said the price of natural gas for fertilizer producers will be raised to $2.1 per MMBTU in 2003.

Big natural gas reserves have been discovered in new fields in Tangguh, Papua province and in Donggi, Central Sulawesi province.

The Tangguh LNG plant in the Bird?s Head area of Papua, where the British-Japanese consortium led by BP Plc has planned to build to LNG trains with the capacity of seven million tons per annum (MTA) in the first phase, has thus far secured a contract to 2.6 MTA to China?s Fujian province starting in 2007. The Philippines firm GN Power wanted to buy 1.5 MTA from Tangguh, but no sales and purchase agreement has been signed. (godang)