ENERGY MINISTER DEDICATES LPG REFINERY IN GRESIK

Gresik, June 15 (ANTARA) - Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro dedicated a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) refinery of Hess Indonesia Pangkah Ltd in Gresik, East Java, on Monday.

Hess Indonesia Pangkah Ltd General Manager Steve McNally said the LPG refinery worth Rp10 trillion has a production capacity of 6,000 barrels per day.

"All liquefied petroleum gas produced by the plant will be used to meet domestic needs," McNally said.

He said the refinery that processed natural gas into liquefied petroleum gas would produce 327 metric tons of propane and 223 metric tons of butane per day.

According to McNally, the propane and butane would then be processed into liquefied petroleum gas to meet the LPG demand of people in Surabaya and Madura, East Java.

The LPG refinery obtains its natural gas from the Ujung Pangkah gas field off the Surabaya northwest coast, and operated by Hess Indonesia Pangkah Ltd.

The natural gas at Ujung Pangkah field will be processed in two stages.

In the first stage, 100 cubic feet of gas per day has been produced since April 2007 to supply gas to the combined gas- and coal-fired power plant (PLTGU) of state electricity company PT PLN in Gresik, and in the second stage, the field produced 25,000 barrels of oil and condensate, and 6,000 barrels of LPG per day.

Present on the occasion included Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Oil and Gas Director General Evita Legowo, Upstream Oil and Gas Executive Board deputy chief Abdul Muin, Downstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Board chief Tubagus Haryono, state gas distributor PT PGN President Director Hendi P Santoso, PT Pertagas President Director Suharyanto, and Gresik district head Robback Ma'sum.