Pertamina in talks for Wayang Windu geothermal stake

Indonesia's national oil and gas company, Pertamina, is in talks with Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. to take over the banks' 50% stake in Wayang Windu geothermal power plant, Irzawadi Agus, director of geothermal division, in Pertamina's upstream directorate, last week, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Senior officials from Pertamina and state-owned electricity company National Power Co. Perusahaan Listrik Negara, or PLN, accompanied by a ministry adviser, were in Singapore last week to meet with banks' officials to discuss their interest in the project.

Unocal Global Venture, a unit of Unocal Corp., holds the remaining 50% share in the power project.

Located 200 kilometers Southeast of Jakarta in Pangalengan, West Java, the 110-megawatt Wayang Windu geothermal power plant was handed over to the banks by its original investor, AsiaPower Ltd.

AsiaPower Ltd., a 95% shareholder of the Wayang Windu power plant, was a subsidiary of New Zealand's Brierley Investments Ltd., before it ceased operations.

AsiaPower last year disposed "the last of the large power assets," having written off close to US$200 million of its debt on Wayang Windu, a company official told Dow Jones Newswires.

The US$450 million asset is now controlled by Unocal Global Venture, and project financiers, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston, via a paper company, Magma Nusantara Ltd., or MNL.

The lenders appointed Unocal as operator of the Wayang Windu project Jan. 19 following AsiaPower's pullout. Unocal now has a 50% equity interest in MNL. (*)