The Jakarta Post | April 26, 2012 | Rangga D. Fadillah
Plans to relocated a floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU), originally slated to be stationed in Belawan, North Sumatera, to a new location in Lampung have stumbled as the government has failed to issue an official ruling to authorize the plan.
The director general for oil and gas at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Evita Herawati Legowo, revealed Wednesday that the government was still discussing the plan and no decision had been made yet.
Earlier this year, the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Ministry sent a letter to state gas distributor PT
Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) — the company that will construct and operate the FSRU — saying that it was necessary to relocate the planned FSRU to Lampung to strengthen gas infrastructure in the southern part of Sumatra.
The letter followed PT Pertamina’s announcement of a plan to convert the LNG plant in Arun, Aceh Province, into a receiving terminal to supply gas to power plants and industries in Aceh and North Sumatra.
The planned ARUN terminal is designed to have a total capacity of 320 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) and is projected to begin commercial operations in late 2013.
The Arun receiving terminal will then supply gas to industries and power plants in Aceh and North
Sumatra.
According to the letter from the SOE Ministry, Pertamina will integrate a pipeline network to deliver gas from Arun to North Sumatra, thus taking over PLN’s plans for Belawan.
PGN said earlier that all costs spent by the company in the developing the FSRU project so far would be paid by Pertamina. To do that, Pertamina was requested to appoint an independent auditor to verify the costs.
The gas distributor’s director for investment planning and risk management, Wahid Sutopo, revealed that prior to the letter from the SOE Ministry, the company had prepared the necessary infrastructure to install the FSRU in Belawan.
“Now, we’re still discussing the repayment of our investment there. In the letter, there is no deadline,” he reported.
The Belawan FSRU was scheduled to begin commercial operations in 2013, but after the relocation plan was announced, Wahid was not sure when the floating terminal might come online.
“The time frame has changed ... we have no idea when the FSRU can be utilized because there are many things we still have to negotiate,” he explained.
Pertamina spokesperson Mochamad Harun claimed his company had no problem with the obligation to repay PGN’s investment but that there were items that became PGN’s business risk that could not be covered by Pertamina.
“That’s why we need the audit. We want to know which items we can cover and which items will become PGN’s business risk,” he said.
As to when an agreement could be made, Harun said it depended on PGN’s readiness to conduct the audit.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/04/19/belawan-fsru-relocation-lampung-limbo.html
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