ONWJ to restart natural gas supply to PLN on June 5

The tie-in project on the pipeline linking gas fields at the Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) block to the power plants in Jakarta and its surrounding areas owned by state electricity company PT PLN has been progressing well, causing optimism that gas supplies to the power plants will soon resume.

"The tie-in project has been more than 74 percent completed. Gas supplies (from the ONWJ block) are expected to resume on June 5," PLN P3B's general manager Muljo Adji told reporters on Thursday.

ONWJ, which is operated by BP, is located off the northern coast of west Java. Gas supplies from the block have been stopped last Monday following a tie-in project, that aims to increase gas supplies to the pipeline.

This has forced PLN to shut down three power plants, that is the Muara Karang and Tanjung Priok power plants in Jakarta and the Muara Tawar power plant in Bekasi, West Java.

Muljo said it would need seven days to ramp up natural gas supply on the pipeline to the previous level of around 200 million cubic feet per day.

Muljo added that the tie-in project would add 100 MMSCFD of gas supplies to the pipeline, but the additional supplies would not come until August. (godang/dino)