Minister Urges Pertamina To Initiate Two New Geothermal Projects

Jakarta, Aug 28 (Antara) - Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan has urged the State-owned oil and gas enterprise PT Pertamina to develop two new geothermal projects in Kamojang, West Java, and Seulawah, Aceh, from the nine existing projects. "Currently, Pertamina is developing nine geothermal projects and with the additional two new projects, the total projects handled by Pertamina are now 11," Dahlan stated here on Thursday. The two new additional projects have already received the forestry usage recommendation permit from the local government following the passing of the Geothermal Law on August 26, 2014. "So far, the local government has been rather strict in issuing permit recommendations fearing the Bogor district Chief case on natural forests. Due to the newly imposed geothermal law, we then revoked the previous recommendation permit and have processed it in accordance with the new law," Dahlan stated. With regard to the geothermal project in Seulawah, Aceh, Dahlan urged Pertamina to review the project after it won the project tender beating the State`s electric company PT. PLN. It is known that Pertamina had won the Seulawah tender, with the power purchase price of 6.9 cents per kilowatt-hour, but was not pursued as they had to wait for the licensing. "I was asked to solve the matter, and the project must not be implemented if it is considered to be detrimental. However, if the project is not implemented then Pertamina will lose around Rp1 billion as it has been invested," Dahlan affirmed. The running of the nine geothermal projects will generate approximately one thousand megawatts of electric power, and it is expected that each project will be completed in the stipulated time period. The geothermal projects, with an investment of around Rp15 trillion, were stalled since the price agreement was not reached.