PGE not informed about acquisition plan

By Bernard Loebs

PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) President Director Slamet Riadhy said that his company?s management had not received any directives from parent company Pertamina or from the office of the minister of state enterprises about the state utility PLN?s plan to acquire a 50 percent stake in PGE.

When asked if the acquisition plan was just a rumor, Slamet says; ?I don?t want to comment on it.?

State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said recently negotiations were underway between PLN and Pertamina on the possibility of the state electricity company to acquire a 50 percent stake in PGE.

"The acquisition will help PLN in solving the problem of geothermal electricity supply," he said.

Dahlan said that the idea of PLN acquiring a 50 percent stake in PGE came to surface after the two firms failed to reach a deal on price of geothermal electricity supply.

"Until now, the two parties had not been able to strike a deal on the Power Purchase Agreement for the geothermal. Therefore, they came up with the idea of making PGE their joint business," he said.

At present, PGE manages 15 geothermal working areas and solely operates nine of them. Among the nine projects are Sibayak in North Sumatra with an installed capacity of 12 MW, Sungai Penuh in Jambi (55 MW), Lumut Balai in South Sumatra (2x55 MW), Hululais in Bengkulu (2x55 MW), and Kotamobagu in North Sulawesi (2x20 MW).

Editing by Benget Besalicto Tnb.