Joint Ministerial Decree planned for Sarulla project

By Edi Junaedi

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Minister of Finance and Minister of State Enterprises are preparing a joint decree aimed at accelerating the development of long-delayed geothermal power plant PLTP Sarulla in North Sumatra.

?The joint decree is on final preparation. It will hopefully be issued soon,? said Director General of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation at the Energy Ministry Kardaya Warnika.

Kardaya said the planned decree will clear up the status of assets, both upstream and downstream, of the project. ?Wells, pipes and other will become assets of (state owned oil and gas) Pertamina while for the plant itself, it will belong to (state owned utility firm) PLN,? he said.

The decree would also be applied to other geothermal projects where PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy is engaged.

PLTP Sarulla, according to Kardaya, will initially have a capacity of 220 MW but the total potential actually reaches 600 MW.

Editing by Dadan Wijaksana