No agreement yet on Gajah Baru swap gas price
Wednesday, April 2 2014 - 09:17 AM WIB
Upstream authority SKK Migas is putting pressure on state owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik (PLN) to accept gas from the Corridor PSC in central Sumatra at the price set by PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN), but PLN is insisting it will only accept the gas at well-head price.
?PLN should wholeheartedly accept the gas supply from PGN,? SKK Migas? spokesperson Zuldadi Rafdi told Petromindo.com.
According to PLN?s Oil Fuel and Gas Division Head Suryadi Mardjoeki, PGN sets $7.67 per mmbtu for the gas. PLN wants a well-head price, namely 6.5 per mmbtu.
?The price of $7.67 per mmbtu is too high,? Suryadi said.
The gas supply is part of the swap agreement signed by among others ConocoPhillips, the operator of Corridor PSC and Premier Oil, the operator of Natuna Sea Block A PSC. Under the agreement, Premier will channel gas from Gajah Baru field in Natuna Sea Block A PSC as much as 40 mmscfd to Conoco?s client in Singapore, while Conoco will channel the same amount of gas from Corridor to local buyers, including 5 mmscfd for PT PLN Batam, also known as Bright PLN Batam, the subsidiary of PLN on the Batam industrial island.
The reason the swap agreement was made is that Premier has signed agreement to channel a total of 40 mmscfd of gas to two gas turbine power plants (with a combined capacity of 155 MW) now being built by Bright PLN Batam and PT Universal Batam Energi (UBE), a subsidiary of PT Medco Power, in Tanjung Uncang area of Batam. Premier has been ready to deliver the gas, but can?t do it at present because the power plants are not finished yet and the pipelines that will be used to channel the gas will only be finished in late 2015.
Meanwhile, according to the latest reports, PGN, through subsidiary PT Transportasi Gas Indonesia, has almost completed the construction of pipeline linking its existing network on the island to Tanjung Uncang area. This means PGN will soon be ready to channel gas to Tanjung Uncang power plants. PLN has said its 2x42.5 MW power plant will be finished at the end of this year, but Medco recently said the 2x30 MW power plant being built by UBE is almost completed and will soon need gas supply from PGN to operate.
Editing by Johannes Simbolon