The government plans to focus on its domestic gas pipeline project
before moving on to the region’s Trans-ASEAN gas pipeline.
“We will prioritize Indonesia’s
integrated gas pipeline first before the ASEAN project,” the Energy and Mineral
Resources Ministry’s oil and gas director general, Evita Herawati Legowo, told
reporters.
She said the ministry expected
the Java pipeline project, which will connect Bekasi, West Java via Cirebon and
Gresik in Central Java with Semarang on the north coast of Java, to begin
operations in 2014.
As for the Sumatra pipeline
project, she said it was expected to connect the gas receiving terminal in Arun
with Belawan, both of which are in North Sumatra.
“One of the companies that will
construct the pipeline is Pertamina Gas [a subsidiary of state-owned oil and
gas company, PT Pertamina],” she said.
Evita said the ministry had no
plan to build pipelines in other regions, such as Kalimantan, because the
challenging terrain.
“There are many sources of
natural gas in Kalimantan, but the locations are scattered.”
The 682.1-kilometer-long
Trans-Java pipeline is estimated to cost around US$1.12 billion.
The Trans-ASEAN gas pipeline,
meanwhile, was instigated by a task force, established in 1999, comprising
ASEAN member states.
All 10 member countries of the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) in 2002 to develop the trans-nation project.
The discourse on the Trans-ASEAN
gas pipeline reemerged during the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy meeting in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last week.
The executive director of
ReforMiner, Pri Agung Rakhmanto, told reporters that he supported the
government’s idea to prioritize domestic pipelines.
“For Java, our pipeline network
is still disconnected between Gresik and Semarang. In the coming years, there
will be some urgency in fulfilling our increasing domestic gas needs,” he said.
He added that the Trans-ASEAN
pipeline project was still at the level of an MoU and had as yet unclear
targets about when it would be built.
“Even when the Trans-ASEAN
pipeline is completed, it will benefit other countries more than us and our
national interests,” he said.
Rabby Pramudatama
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