PLN secures CNG supply from Medco
Thursday, September 22 2005 - 02:08 AM WIB
The two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the gas supply on Sept. 20, PLN’s director of power plants and primary energy generation Mi Herman Ibrahim said on Wednesday.
“The CNG will be used for our plants in Bali, South Sulawesi,and Southeast Sulawesi” said Ali in a telephone interview. He did not name which plants would use the CNG.
PLN expects to get about 100 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of CNG, which will be enough to generate 100 megawatts of power.
“We hope to get the project moving by 2008,” said Ali.
Medco’s corporate secretary Andi Karamoy said that under the MOU, a task force would be formed to study the feasibility of the CNG Supply.
“We will study the possibility (of supplying the gas) in more detail,” said Andi.
The Senoro block in Southeast Sulawesi has a proven reserve of 1.5 trillion cubic feet (tef) of gas and a probable reserve of another 1.1 tcf.
As global oil prices soar and PLN’s need for oil-based fuel rose above the quota set by the government, the company is looking for cheaper sources of power.
A study conducted recently by a consortium that includes Korea’s Samsung and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. shows that sea transportation for CNG is viable for a supply of between 150 mmscfd and 250 inmscfd with a distance of between 500 nautical miles and 1,000 nautical miles.
Bali was selected to be a pilot project for the use of CNG in power plants.(*)