Medco drills geothermal wells

Medco drills geothermal wells

JAKARTA (JP): The president of PT Meta Epsi Antareja Drilling
Co., a subsidiary of PT Medco Energy Corporation, announced over
the weekend that his company is drilling the eighth geothermal
well for a power plant in Pangalengan, West Java.

The company's president, Hertriono Kartowisastro, said the
contract was only for drilling the wells not for their
development.

"In the first stage, we'll drill 12 wells that will be able to
support a power plant with a generation capacity of 110 megawatts
(MW)," the daily Bisnis Indonesia quoted him yesterday as saying
in Bandung.

According to Hertriono, the geothermal power plant would have
a total generation capacity of 310 MW and be operated by PT
Mandala Nusantara, a subsidiary of the Humpuss Group, which is
owned by President Soeharto's youngest son Hutama (Tommy) Mandala
Putra.

Hertriono would not reveal the value of the contract. But PT
Meta Epsi's general manager, Askar Kartiwa, said that, based on
his company's experience, the drilling cost of a well between
2,200 and 4,400 meters deep was about Rp 1 billion
(US$432,900). (13)