Pertamina needs $57.92m in 2009 for domestic LPG

Alfian, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 11/17/2008 10:53 AM  

State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina will need at least US$57.92 million next year to build supporting infrastructure for the government's kerosene-to-LPG conversion program, the company's official said Saturday. 

To support the program, Pertamina aims to build an LPG storage terminal and 100 more LPG filling stations in 2009, the company's vice president for domestic gas Wahyudin Akbar said. 

"The storage terminal will cost us approximately $32 million and the filling stations between Rp 2 and Rp 3 billion ($259,000) each," he said on the sideline of a conversion campaign event in Jatinegara district, East Jakarta. 

Wahyudin said the terminal, with a minimum capacity of 10,000 metric ton LPG, would be located in Surabaya, East Java. 

Currently, the company has one storage terminal with a capacity of 10,000 metric tons in Eretan, West Java. Wahyudin said the company was also equipped with a tanker with a capacity of 40,000 metric tons. 

By 2010, the company plans to add three more storage terminals with a capacity of 10,000 metric tons of LPG, he added. 

With regard to LPG filling stations, the company plans to build 100 more stations across the country. Each station is expected to be able to refill between 3,000 and 5,000 of the 3 kilogram LPG canisters per day. 

Pertamina plans to have 300 filling stations by the end of 2010. 

"With the conversion program, the demand for LPG is emerging. We are preparing everything to meet this demand," Wahyudin said, adding that the company would welcome private companies to team up with Pertamina to build all this infrastructure. 

The government launched the kerosene-to-LPG conversion program in December 2006 in a bid to reduce subsidies for kerosene. Pertamina, as the sole distributor of the 3 kilogram LPG canisters, aimed to complete the program in 2010. 

However, the conversion has gone too slowly due to a lack of canisters and refill stations. Pertamina has revised downward its 2008 target for the number of households receiving the package of an LPG cylinder and gas stove from 20 million households to 15 million households. 

As of early November, about 11.8 million households received the package, Wahyudin said. 

The program targeted to replace the use of up to 2.1 million kiloliters of kerosene by the end of 2008. As of November, the replacement level reached 1.8 million kiloliters.