PGN Still Far Away Off Target To Serve Household Subscribers

Pekanbaru, Riau, Aug 18 (Antara) - Publicly listed state gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) said it is still far away from its target to list 1 million household subscribers. So far the company has only 90,000 household subscribers in Medan, Batam, Pelembang, Jakarta, Cirebon, Sidoarjo, Surabaya, a number of other big cities, a company general manager Yosviandri said via telephone here on Monday. Yosviandri said PGN began to sell gas to households in 1979 at a price relatively cheap compared with liquefied petroleum gas in canister of state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina. Natural gas distributed to households via pipes is around three time cheaper than LPG from Pertamina, he said. "The price is much cheaper under cross subsidy with commercial subscribers," he said, adding PGN did not expect profit from household subscribers. Probably in Indonesia only PGN channels natural gas to households, he added. For 35 years the company has distributed natural gas to households , but the business had not come to a break even point, because of the high cost of infrastructure, he said. The company hopes to increase the number of its household subscribers including in Pekanbaru. He said PGN has 19,000 household subscribers in Medan, 250 in Batam 250 and more subscribers are expected in Riau . Head of the Pekanbaru branch of PGN Wendi Purwanto said so far PGN`s subscribers in Raiu are only industrial companies such as PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper (IKPP) in Perawang, in the regency of Siak and two oil and gas companies including Pertamina Lirik in the regency of Indragiri Hulu and Pertamina Ukui in the regency of Pelalawan. "Currently our commercial subscribers are only in the industrial sector . We have no subscribers yet in other commercial sectors such as hotels, restaurants. We have not succeeded in expanding to those sectors because of limited supplying capacity and networks," he said.