PERTAMINA seeks vessels for terminals.

Alfian , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 01/30/2010 12:53 PM | Business
State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina will open a bidding for the procurement of sea vessels that will be used to support the operation of its upcoming LNG-receiving terminals in Java, president director Karen Agustiawan said Friday. "We expect to hold the bidding by the end of February. "There are about two or three vessels that meet our criteria, but I cannot disclose that now," she added. Karen said once the vessels were ready, re-gasification facilities would be constructed on the vessels. "The work will take about nine months," said Karen, adding that the terminals would also require other facilities, including deep sea pipelines. "The LNG terminals are expected to be in full operation by September, 2011," Karen said.

Pertamina plans to build two LNG terminals located in West and East Java. Each terminal will require an investment of about US$200 million and can store 500 million cubic feet of gas. For the terminal in West Java, Pertamina will team up with state gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN), which will also build another terminal in North Sumatra. Karen said Pertamina would invite selected vessel owners to take a part in the joint venture operating the terminals. "But Pertamina must hold the majority interest in the joint venture, because we don't want the vessels to be leased, we want to own them," Karen said.

Pertamina and the PGN have been ordered to build the LNG-receiving terminals by the government to help state power firm PT PLN secure gas supply for its power plants. PLN's primary energy director Nur Pamudji said the company's power plants were suffering gas deficits across the country. "The biggest deficit is in Java," Nur Pamudji said. He said that PLN was currently in deficit for gas as much as 235 billion British thermal units per day (BBTUD) in Jakarta, 150 million BBTUD in Central Java, and 90 million BBTUD in East Java. Outside Java, the significant deficit occurs in North Sumatra, where PLN needs about 150 million BBTUD of gas. PLN is working to convert its fuel-fired power plants to gas-fired power plants in a bid to cut energy spending. PLN's fuel consumption reached 25 percent of its total energy consumption in 2009. The company expects to reduce the percentage to 19 percent this year and 12 percent in 2011