Industry proposes gas quota for smelters
Thursday, June 12 2014 - 02:43 AM WIB
The Indonesian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) proposed a gas quota for domestic smelters to be included in the national gas balance.
Kadin Deputy Chairman Natsir Mansur said that the smelter industry will calculate the estimated gas volume required by the domestic smelters.
"We will discuss it with the government, in this case the Ministry of Industry, to set the (estimated) volume of gas demand by the smelter industry," Natsir Mansyur said on Wednesday.
He said that heavy air pollution in China due to the massive use of coal-fired power plant has triggered request for the planned domestic smelters to source its power supply from cleaner gas-fired plants.
"We will support the development of gas-fuelled power plants for smelters," Achmad Sigit Dwiwahjono, Director of Industrial Facilitation Development for Region III at the Ministry of Industry said.
Achmad Sigit made an initial estimated of the gas volume to be required by the smelter industry. He said that one smelter that produces 600,000 tons of refined mineral requires about 250 MW of power supply, which means 30-40 mmscfd of gas.
However, the economic viability of smelter with gas-fuelled power plant will depend on the availability of the supporting infrastructures. Investors have two options whether to build the smelter close to gas resources or close to the mineral resources.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak