JAKARTA. The government revenue from the development of Wortel Field operated by Santos Pty. Ltd reaches US$ 164 million. The revenue comes from the sales of gas production for 50 billion british thermal unit per day (BBTUD). In detail, 30 BBTUD to Steam Power Plant Grati in Pasuruan, East Java owned by PT Indonesia Power, 17 BBTUD to Regional-Owned Enterprise (BUMND) Sampang, the rest is to BUMD Pasuruan.

“The biggest donation comes from the sales to Indonesia Power US$ 98 million,” says the Head of Public Relations, Security, and Formality Division, BPMIGAS, Gde Pradnyana in Jakarta, (8/11).

He explained that BPMIGAS encourages the fulfilling of natural gas as industry and electricity supporting material for domestic. Along this time, the gas produced in East Java is used wholly for fulfilling the needs of the area. “There is no gas sold outside from East Java, so the gas utilization could create double effects towards economic activity in region,” he says.

In other hand, Gde hoped that consumers could buy gas with economic price. By using appropriate price, oil and gas enterprises in upstream sector could invest to develop their fields. “The supply could also be continuous,” he says.

That is why, BPMIGAS welcome the increase of gas sales price in Maleo Field in East Java between Santos and Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN). The agreement was dealt in the signing of the second addendum of Maleo gas sale agreement done between Santos and PGN on Monday, November 7th, 2011. Maleo Field has started to supply gas for PGN since 2006 for 110 BBTUD. The previous sales price was US$ 2, 14 per million british thermal unit. By the signing of the second addendum, both sides agree to increase the gas sales price becoming US$ 5 per million british thermal unit with 3 % of escalation per year. “By this agreement, buyer and seller are both beneficial,” says Gde.

He hoped that the similar agreement could be created in gas contracts having price less than US$ 3 per million british thermal unit. According to him, the step needs to be supported by Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR). Recently, the process of price agreement and allocation, especially for domestic, given by Minister of EMR grow a new spirit for oil and gas enterprises to be more encouraging in exploring and exploiting oil and gas in Indonesia. “In addition, the domestic gas price improvement also means increasing state revenue,” he says. (AK)

COPY : ESDM.GO.IDADMINISTRATOR)