PLN hopes Premier Oil to sign gas swap deal early February
Tuesday, January 31 2012 - 01:59 AM WIB
State electricity company PT PLN said it hopes that Premier Oil BV, the operator of the Gajah Baru field in Natuna, Riau Islands province, would sign the gas swap deal in early February. The company therefore called on the oil and gas contractor to soon resolve pending issues over the swap deal.
?Premier Oil has made few changes in the final agreement which was agreed earlier,? Suryadi Mardjoeki, Division Head for Fuel and Gas procurement of PT PLN, told Petromindo.com. He said PLN has asked Premier Oil to return to initial deal.
Suryadi said state gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) is ready to transport the gas to PLN?s power plants in north Jakarta.
Suryadi said generally Premier and PLN have agreed on the gas swap deal, however there was a demand from Premier that PLN could not agree to. Premier Oil demanded that PLN had to pay for the whole allocation amount of the gas even if it could not absorb them all.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik in late October has approved to swap gas from Gajah Baru field with gas from ConocoPhillips? Corridor Block.
Under the swap deal, 40 million cubic feet of gas from ConocoPhillips? Corridor Block, which was supposed to be sent to Singapore buyers, will be redirected to PLTG Muara Tawar, owned by PLN. While gas, which was supposed to be sent to Singapore buyers from Corridor Block, will be replaced by gas from Gajah Baru field.
PLN, ConocoPhillips and Premier Oil were supposed to have signed the gas swap deal at the end of last year. However, the signing was delayed due to some unresolved issues.
Editing by Roffie Kurniawan