Petrokimia Gresik may stop production due to gas supply shortage
Tuesday, May 23 2006 - 02:31 AM WIB
"Petrogres through its parent company PT Pusri has sent a letter to the Ministry for Supervision of State Enterprises to inform that the company may be soon forced to stop its production due to a continuing uncertainty in the gas supply," Minister of Industry Fahmi Idris told members of the Commission VII of the House of Representatives (DPR) in a hearing in Jakarta on Monday.
The Minister said that the gas supply for Petrogres had been worsening lately due to the decline in the production of the Kangean's gas fields, the main gas supplier for state owned gas distribution PGN and industries in East Java.
According to the minister, Petrogres is only able to receive about 30 million cubic feet per day, far from enough to meet its gas needs which reach about 50 million cubic feet per day.
Fahmi said that his office and the ministry of energy and mineral resources, as well as the ministry for the supervision of state owned companies had discussed a number of solutions to deal with the gas shortage problem.
"One of the solutions is to speed up the exploration activities in a number of gas fields in East Java. Before the gas fields are able to provide additional supply, the existing gas producers will be asked to reduce gas supply to PGN so that the supply for Petrogres can be increased," he added. (*)