PLN to open gas, oil fuel supply tender

State electricity firm PT PLN (Persero) said it will open tender to supply at least 200 BBTUD of gas to its Muara Tawar power plant in Bekasi, West Java and another tender for at least one million kiloliters of fuel for its power plants.

PLN Primary Energy Director Nur Pamudji said the tender will be announced this month.

He added that gas supply contract would be for 10 years and would be opened for domestic and overseas suppliers. ?PLN will receive gas at its gate and if there is overseas supplier that can provide gas in form of LNG which will be re-gasified at the proposed Jakarta Bay receiving terminal, then the company is welcome to submit its offer,? he said, adding that the bidders will should shoulder transportation and re-gasification costs.

Muara Tawar has been suffering from acute gas supply shortage after the government cut gas supply from 200 BBTUD and 100 BBTUD (interruptible) to only 100 BBTUD currently, forcing the Company to burn more expensive fuel to fire the power plant.

?PLN is now in the opinion that it can not rely on gas domestic market obligation allocation alone and therefore decided to call on an open tender in which domestic and overseas suppliers can participate,? he said.

He also said that PLN will open tender to buy at least 1 million kiloliters of oil fuel this year to anticipate increasing consumption by PLN, which is partly caused by lack of gas supply. (bernard/godang)