PLN, Medco mull to build 100 MW combined cycled power plant

State-owned electricity company PT PLN will team up with PT Medco E&P, an upstream unit of JSX-listed energy firm PT Medco Energi International to build a combined cycle power plant in Aceh to take the advantage of the gas surplus from Medco’s Block A gas field, Kontan reported Tuesday.

 

Ali Herman Ibrahim, PLN's Director for Power Generation and Primary Energy, said in Jakarta Monday that the power plant which could use both gas and oil as its fuel would have a capacity of 100 megawatt (MW).

 

He said that the construction of the power plant which would receive gas from Medco's Block A was being negotiated. "If the project is realized, it will take about three years to complete," he said

 

He said that the construction of the power plant would cost about US$100 million, based on a general assumption that it would need about $1 million for the generation of one megawatt.

 

Separately, Medco's spokesman Aditya Mandala confirmed  PLN's statement, but he said that it would be oil and gas upstream regulatory agency BPMIGAS that would decide it.

 

According to Medco E&P CEO Lukman Mahfoedz in an earlier interview with Petromindo.Com that the block would commence gas delivery in mid-2010 with estimated gas flow of 110 MMCFD with further upside potential.

 

MedcoEnergi’s director of corporate affairs and development Rashid I Mangunkusumo said on May 14, 2007 hinted that the entire gas production from Block A would be sold to state owned fertilizer firm PT Pupuk Iskandar Muda (PIM), which is in desperate need of gas after supply from ExxonMobil’s gas fields dwindled due to reserves depletion. (*)