Vico begins CBM production in Kalimantan

Virginia Indonesia Company (Vico) has begun the commercial production of coal bed methane (CBM) at the company?s CBM field in Sanga Sanga, East Kalimantan with capacity of 0.5 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd), Kontan reported on Wednesday.

The Sanga Sanga field, the first CBM field to begin production in the country, distributes the CBM for the operation of a gas-fired power plant with capacity of 2 megawatt in Balikpapan.

Elan Biantoro, Head of Public Relations at upstream authority SKK Migas said the CBM would be supplied to the power plant within the next two years. According to the provisional sales purchase agreement between Vico and PLN, gas is priced at US$7.4 per million metric British thermal units (mmbtu).

"Actually, SKK Migas has not approved the plan of development (POD) of the Sanga Sanga gas field. But because the production capacity is still small,Vico can use pre-POD, and uses the provisional power purchase agreement for the sales of the CBM,? he added. (*)