PLN will need more gas next year: Darwin

State electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) will need at least 344.7 trillion British thermal units (TBTUs) of gas to fuel the company?s gas-fired power plants in 2012, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh has said.

The minister said that the floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) which would be built in West Java was expected to provide gas supply of up to 36 TBTU or about 150 million standard cubic per day (mmscfd) to PLTU Muara Karang combined cycle power plant in North Jakarta beginning March in 2012.

Speaking during a hearing with the House of Representatives? commission VII last week, the minister said that the supply from the FSRU in West Java had been calculated in the government?s 2012 domestic gas utilization estimate.

According to the minister, the gas need of PLN is estimated to reach 389.3 TBTU in 2011. He, however, said that it would be difficult to meet the demand because the delay in the operation of the FSRU in West Java.

He said that the delay occurred because PLN needed longer time to coordinate the installation of the pipeline for the distribution of gas from the FSRU to the Muara Karang power plant with the Jakarta administration. (*)