Pertamina investing $96m in Ulu Belu geothermal field
Friday, December 12 2008 - 06:20 AM WIB
The drilling program is expected to last through August 2009.
"Thus far, we have drilled six wells. Thus, we still have 10 wells to drill through the third quarter of next year," Ulu Belu geothermal project leader Bambang Budiarjo told reporters in Bandar Lampung Thursday evening, explaining that the drilling cost of one well is at between $5 million and $6 million.
According to Bambang, of the six wells that have been drilled, two, Ulu Belu 3 and Ulu Belu 4, have 2x10 MW geothermal steam. Ulu Belu 1 and Ulu Belu 2 have no geothermal steam. Drilling at Ulu Belu 5 was completed in November and the firm has been secured to allow the temperature of the well's water to increase.
"The drilling of Ulu Belu 6 is in progress," he said.
PGE's public relation manager Adiatma Sardjito said the firm planned to build a 2x55 MW power plant using the Ulu Belu geothermal steam.
"Negotiation with (state owned electricity firm) PLN is in progress. The price has not been fixed yet," he explained.
According to him, PGE started activities in Ulu Belu in 1989. Under the initial agreement, the firm would drill the wells and sell the steam to PLN. PLN would build power plant using the steam.
"The progress of the project has been hampered because PLN has yet to build the power plant," he said, citing that PLN might lack funds to build the plant.
He said PGE had enough funds to build the power plant but PLN was apparently still interested to build the power plant -- a possible reason that the public utility is not yet willing to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) with PGE.
"The plant is scheduled to come online in 2011. Yet, no PPA has been signed," Adiatma said, calling on PLN to hand over the power plant project to PGE.
He said PGE also planned to explore for geothermal steam in Lumut Balai next week. "We hope it is much better than Ulu Belu," he said.
PGE currently produces 252 MW equivalent of electricity from Kamojang in West Java, Sibayak in North Sumatra and Lahendong in North Sulawesi. (Bernard)