Gas Negara, Brighton sign $1.3 billion deal
Gas Negara, Brighton sign $1.3 billion deal
JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned gas company PT Gas Negara (PGN)
signed a 20-year agreement worth US$1.3 billion with Brighton
Ltd. yesterday to supply 60,000 standard cubic feet of gas per
day to Brighton's 600-megawatt steam power project in Batam,
Riau.
PGN's president, A. Qoyum Tjandranegara, said the gas will be
delivered by PGN through the Asamera-Duri-Batam pipeline which
will span 820 kilometers (km) from central Sumatra to Batam.
"The pipeline is scheduled to be completed in 1998," Qoyum
told reporters after the signing ceremony here.
Brighton, which is registered in Western Samoa, and its local
partner, PT Kresna Tara, will initially build a 150-megawatt
power plant with an investment of $100 million.
Both Brighton and Kresna Tara are 55 percent owned by Bambang
Trihatmodjo. The remaining 45 percent is equally owned by three
other Indonesian businessmen -- Johanes Kotjo, Bambang Riyadi
Soegama and Wisnu Suhardono.
Bambang Riyadi Soegama said the planned power plant's capacity
will eventually be expanded to 600 megawatts with an additional
investment of $500 million.
He said the construction of the power plant will start in
1998. It is slated to come on stream in 1999 to supply Batam and
its surrounding areas.
He said the electricity generated by the power plant will be
sold to the state-owned electricity company PT PLN at an
estimated price of six U.S. cents per kilowatt hour.
He added that his company has yet to sign a power purchasing
agreement with PLN, but that Brighton has secured a letter of
preliminary approval from the Director General of Electricity and
Energy Development for the power project.
Qoyum said yesterday that the $600 million Asamera-Duri-Batam
pipeline will be 75 percent financed by the Asian Development
Bank, the European Investment Bank and Japan's Export Import
Bank.
"The remainder will be financed by new shareholders which will
be selected in April," he said.
He said four companies -- Navacorp of Canada, British Gas, Gas
Du France and Technicorp of the United States -- had applied to
become shareholders in the pipeline project.
Qoyum said PGN will buy natural gas for the power plant from
Pertamina and its contractors in central Sumatra, but a final gas
purchase contract with Pertamina has yet to be concluded. (04)