Pertamina to take over Wayang Windu in March

State owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina expects it will be able to complete the acquisition of West Java-based geothermal power plant Wayang Windu from its financier Deutsche Bank of the Netherlands in March, this year, Koran Tempo reported on Tuesday.

Pertamina’s director for downstream operation Bambang Nugroho said in Jakarta last week that negotiations on the takeover plan with Deutsche Bank were still underway.

According to him, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement on the takeover plan was signed last year. But the takeover could not be settled as initially scheduled last year due to disagreement on price.

Bambang said Deutsche Bank offered a price tag of US$250 million for the geothermal plant but Pertmina considered the offer too expensive. “Based on the audit, the value of the plant is about US$200 million,” he added.

The construction of the Wayang Windu power plant which has a capacity of 2 x 110 MW, began in 1994, with total investment of $434 million. One of the power generators had been completed.

The geothermal power project, one of the world’s environmentally friendly power plants, will receive grant of US$250 million from the Netherlands-based Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for the use of the environmentally friendly technology.

This year Pertamina will spend about Rp5.96 trillion for new investment, an increase from Rp4.7 trillion last year. About Rp1.3 trillion of the total funds will be allocated for expansion in the upstream sector. (*)