Pertamina to form JV with Japan, Philippines firms to build power plants

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina will form a joint venture with Japan?s Marubeni Corporation and Philippines National Oil Company to build a number of geothermal power plants, Koran Tempo newspaper reported in its Saturday edition.

Pertamina?s general manager for geothermal sector Sukusen Soemarinda confirmed that both parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on December 17 in Japan. The joint cooperation plan is made to develop Pertamina?s geothermal power projects at Ulu Belu in Lampung, Lumutbalai in South Sumatra and Lahendong in North Sulawesi.

?The signing was done in Tokyo when Pertamina was on a promotional tour to four countries ? New Zealand, Philippines, Japan and China ? for one week in last December,? Sukusen told Koran Tempo in Jakarta on Friday.

Japan and the Philippines are using geothermal sources to generate electricity, because it will be environmentally friendly and renewable.

Japan produces 546.9 megawatts (MW) and the Philippines 1,909 MW electricity from their geothermal power plants.

Indonesia is just producing 789.5 MW of electricity from its geothermal potential of 20,000 MW.

Pertamina is planning to generate 1,000 MW of electricity from geothermal power plants, Sukusen said.

According to Pertamina?s upstream director Bambang Nugroho, Pertamina is at present producing 162 MW of electricity from its geothermal power plants.

In fact, the building of geothermal power plants power is not cheap. For example, US$1 million investment needed to generate 1 MW of electricity. (*)