New power plant for Riau oil fields
New power plant for Riau oil fields
JAKARTA (JP): PT Mandau Cipta Tenaga Nusantara is building a
US$190 million cogeneration plant in the Riau province to support
the oil operation of its sister company, PT Caltex Pacific
Indonesia.
Caltex said in a statement on Monday that the 300 megawatt
plant, the country's largest, will supply power and steam to
support oil extraction at Caltex's steamflood operation in Duri,
the world's largest such operation.
"The cogeneration plant is expected to be completed in
November 2000," the company said.
It said the project is a result of the cooperation between
Pertamina, Caltex, Mandau Cipta and the government, and is a show
of confidence in the future of Indonesia, despite the current
economic crisis and slumping oil prices.
Mandau Cipta is a consortium comprising the United States
energy companies Chevron and Texaco -- which are the co-owners of
Caltex -- and a local company PT Nusagalih Nusantara, which has a
5 percent holding.
Cogeneration is the term for the process that makes use of the
heat energy resulting from the burning of natural gas to make
electricity.
A common gas-fired power plant can only turn 30 percent of the
energy in gas into electrical power, and the rest is wasted in
heat and and steam.
Cogeneration power plants can produce the same amount of
electricity and then use the steam's thermal energy for heating
and cooling needs.
The steam produced at the Duri cogeneration plant will be
pumped into the Duri oil wells to extract the crude oil.
Currently, Caltex burns a large amount of crude oil to produce
steam to be pumped into the wells.
The company said the cogeneration plant will be fed with
natural gas piped from the Corridor block owned by Canada's Gulf
Resources in Grissik, Musi Banguasin, South Sumatra.
Gulf will receive crude oil from Caltex in return for the gas.
"By using cogeneration rather than the traditional method of
producing electricity and steam separately, Pertamina/Caltex will
save approximately 13,000 barrels per day of crude oil," Caltex's
senior vice president and deputy managing director Humayunbosha
said, adding the cogeneration plant will also reduce Caltex's oil
production costs.
The cogeneration plant will be operated by Amoseas Indonesia,
one of Caltex's sister companies, which will supply power to
Caltex at rates well below those charged by most private power
companies throughout Java and Sumatra.
The contract for the construction of the cogeneration power
plant has been awarded to a consortium comprising PT Stone and
Webster Indonesia and Westinghouse International Power Systems.
The consortium will rely on local contractors to build the plant.
(jsk)