Increase Domestic Gas Usage, Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources Jor-Joran Build Energy Infrastructure

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) is intensively building energy infrastructure to increase domestic gas absorption. One of the projects being worked on is the construction of the Cirebon-Semarang (CISEM) and Dumai-Sei Mangke natural gas pipeline transmissions which are part of the National Strategic Project (PSN) and mandated in Presidential Regulation Number 109 of 2020 concerning the Third Amendment to Presidential Regulation Number 3 of 2016 concerning the Acceleration of PSN Implementation.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif revealed that the construction of the 60 KM Cisem Phase I gas pipeline project (Ruas Semarang-Batang) has been completed, and the Cisem Phase II (Batang-Kandang Haur) project will begin construction next year.

"Currently (the) Semarang-Batang (ruas) has been completed, and a 240 KM long Batang-Cirebon-Kandang Haur gas pipeline project is being prepared," said Arifin, Tuesday, October 31.

He detailed that the Cisem Phase I gas pipeline project costs IDR 1.13 trillion, and Phase II of Cisem is planned to cost IDR 3.34 trillion, which is included in the APBN with a multi-year contract scheme. So that the total cost of the gas pipeline project is IDR 4.47 trillion.

The potential demand for this phase II CISEM pipeline, said Arifin, includes industries in Cirebon, Tegal. Pekalongan, Brebes and Pemalang with a volume of around 5.8-12 MMSCFD. In addition, commercial consumers such as hotels and restaurants, as well as household gas networks, Balongan oil refineries with a volume of 24 MMSCFD and a potential increase of up to 42 MMMSFD. Another demand is a power plant with a volume of 189-199 MMCSFD.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said Arifin, is also preparing to build a Dumai-Sei Mangke gas pipeline in northern Sumatra. If this has been done, it will increase the use of domestic gas, because it has been connected from East Java to northern Sumatra.

"So far, northern Sumatra has supplied gas needs from shipments of 16 LNG cargoes from Papua and East Kalimantan," he added.

The total budget that will be used for the construction of the Dumai-Sei Mangke gas pipeline is IDR 6.6 trillion, and will distribute natural gas potential from the Great and Andaman Working Areas (WK) in Aceh to be utilized in Java and Sumatra.

If the gas pipeline has been connected from Sumatra to East Java, there will be an additional 300 thousand recipients of the city gas network (jargas) in Cisem with 300 thousand household connections (SR) and Dumai-Sei Mangke with 600 thousand SR. From this figure, it will reduce the LPG 3 kg subsidy by Rp630 billion per year, and will save LPG import foreign exchange by Rp1.08 trillion per year.