Ministry to allocate geothermal fund to five geothermal areas
Monday, December 11 2017 - 03:01 AM WIB
Petromindo|Lucky
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) has recommended to the Ministry of Finance to allocate the government?s geothermal fund to finance exploration activities in five geothermal working areas in a bid to help accelerate the development of the geothermal sector.
Director of Geothermal at the MEMR Yunus Saifulhak told Petromindo.com recently that the fund will be used to finance exploration activities including geological, geophysical, and geochemical (3G) in five geothermal working areas (WKPs), namely WKP Waisano in East Nusa Tenggara Province (NTT), WKP Oka Ile Ange in East Flores (NTT), WKP Jailolo in North Maluku Province, WKP Gunung Talang Bukit Kili in West Sumatra Province, and WKP Bonjol also in West Sumatra.
The geothermal fund, worth Rp 3.7 trillion, is financed by the state budget plus a grant facility from the World Bank, and managed by state-owned infrastructure financing firm PT Sara Multi Infrastruktur (SMI).
Yunus said that the MEMR, the Ministry of Finance, and SMI will set up a committee which will supervise the exploration activities in the WKPs funded by the geothermal fund. The committee will be assisted by a New Zealand consultancy firm appointed by the World Bank and SMI.
He explained that SMI will hold tender to appoint contractors to carry out the exploration activities. Once completed, the WKPs will be offered to investors for further development via tender process. The winning bidders will then return the expenses used to finance the exploration activities, which will then allocated for exploration activities in other geothermal working areas. All these processes will be monitored and supervised by the committee.
He said that the revolving geothermal fund is aimed at helping investors to reduce risk in geothermal exploration activities. The fund is expected to help accelerate the development of the geothermal power sector in the country which aims to boost the development of renewable energy so as to account for about 23 percent of the energy mix in 2025.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak