Pertamina to boost geothermal steam and power production

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina will boost production at three geothermal operations, Bisnis Indonesia daily reported in its Wednesday edition.

The three geothermal operations are the Lahendong geothermal field in Sulawesi, the Kamojang and Wayang Windu goethermal power plants, both in West Java.

Pertamina?s geothermal general manager Sukusen Soemarinda said on Tuesday that steam output at Lahendong will be increased to 60 Megawatt (MW) from 20 MW, while power production at Kamojang and Wayang Windu will be raised to 200 MW from 140 MW and to 220 MW from 110 MW, respectively.

The works will begin this month and will be finished in 2006.

Pertamina will carry out the expansion projects on its own.

?These projects are all our own business activities and all the project financing is also from us? he said.

Though he declined to give the total investment figure for the projects, but he mentioned that $1 million is needed to produce 1 MW of geothermal steam and power. That means the projects will need around $200 million. (*)