Japanese firms eyeing Badak NGL coal-fired steam plant project

25 companies have shown interest to develop coal-fired steam plant for East Kalimantan LNG plant Badak NGL, a Badak NGL official said on Wednesday.

Badak NGL CEO Yoga Suprapto told reporters that among the companies that had returned pre-qualification bid documents included Japanese giants Sumitomo and Mitsubishi Corp. and local power firm Dalle Energy.

Yoga said the coal-fired steam plant would be built to replace the current gas-fired plant and would enable the plant to turn some 300MMCFD of gas that were used to generate steam to LNG. ?Conversion (from gas-fired to coal-fired) would enable Badak to produce addition 1.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum,? he said.

Yoga said Badak is seeking for investor and developer to build, own and finance the steam plant and Badak would sign long-term contract to buy the stream from the plant. He estimated that the plant would cost US$600 million to build.

The winner for the project is expected to be announced November this year, with completion seen in late 2009 or early 2010, he said.

He added that Badak NGL required utilization of lower-calorific value subituminous coal to feed the plant. ?The plant would consume around 5 million tonnes of coal per annum. There should be no problem for developer to acquire coal since East Kalimantan is a coal-rich province, and low calorific value coal are abundant, ? he said.

Badak NGL, once the world?s largest LNG plant, is faced with acute gas supply shortage. Yoga said that Badak would only be able to produce 18 million tonnes of LNG this year to be exported to East Asian customers. The plant has installed capacity of 22 MTPA. He predicted that LNG production from Bontang would dwindle further to 15 million tonnes within the next five years.

Gas to Badak LNG plant are supplied by East Kalimantan producers; Total SA, Vico Indonesia and Chevron. (alex)