[Kabar-indonesia] 8 oil/gas/mining articles: Pertamina; Medco; Cilacap; MAE; Banpu

[Joyo at aol.com]

8 Reports compiled, selected, and formatted by Joyo

- Jakarta may take over Pertamina's geothermal areas

- Indonesia's Energy Min To Issue Decree On Geothermal Law

- Indonesia's Inco sees '07 output down from record highs

- Indonesia's Medco to seek arbitration in mud flow
dispute - report

- Indonesia's Apexindo set to chalk up US$150 mln income
this year

- Indonesia's Cilacap coal fired plant to be fully
operational

- Thai Banpu Q3 net profit down, misses forecast

- Interview-MAE to produce biofuel in Malaysia, Singapore

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Jakarta may take over Pertamina's geothermal areas

JAKARTA, November 14 (Reuters) - The Indonesian government
plans to take over 15 geothermal working areas from
Pertamina in 2010 if the state oil and gas firm does not
develop the projects and tender them to other companies, a
mines and energy ministry official said on Tuesday.

A lack of investment and uncertainty over government
regulation has caused difficulties for Pertamina in
developing the projects, located on the islands of Sumatra
and Java, the company has said.

Pertamina has 142 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power plants
in Kamojang, West Java, and plans to expand to 900 MW by
2010.

"The government will tender the geothermal areas to other
companies if Pertamina does not develop the projects by
2010," ministry official Sutisna Prawira told Reuters.

Pertamina upstream director Sukusen Soemarinda said the firm
was seeking partners to develop geothermal projects.

"Chevron has shown interest to co-operate with Pertamina in
developing geothermal projects. We plan to discuss (this)
with them," Soemarinda said.

U.S. energy major Chevron Corp. currently has about 520 MW
of geothermal power plants, located in West Java.

Geothermal power plants use hot water or steam from beneath
the earth's surface to generate electricity.

Indonesia, dotted with hundreds of active and extinct
volcanoes, has estimated potential to produce 27,000 MW of
electricity from geothermal sources.
Indonesia, Asia Pacific's only OPEC member, is also the
world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and
has huge coal deposits.

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Indonesia's Energy Min To Issue Decree On Geothermal Law

JAKARTA, November 13 (Dow Jones)--Indonesia's Minister of
Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Monday
that in the near future, he will issue a decree on
implementation of a geothermal law passed in 2003.

Purnomo said investors are demanding that the government
issues a decree before they start investing in geothermal
projects in the country.

"They (investors) want to know, for example, what the price
of geothermal energy is," he told reporters.

He didn't specify when he will issue a decree.

The government has urged investors to tap its underutilized
geothermal resources so Indonesia can reduce its reliance on
crude oil for energy.

Located along the so-called ring of fire, Indonesia is
estimated to have geothermal resources able to produce
20,000 megawatts of electricity, but only 800 MW have been
tapped so far through the development of geothermal power
plants.

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Indonesia's Inco sees '07 output down from record highs

JAKARTA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The Indonesian unit of Canada's
Inco Ltd said on Monday its 2007 nickel in matte output is
likely to be lower than last year's record highs due to
limited power supply.

Inco's nickel in matte output is forecast to fall to around
158 million pounds this year from 168 million last year, and
next year's production is likely to be at the same level,
said Arif Siregar, chief of PT International Nickel
Indonesia Tbk.

Inco plans to build a dam to generate more electricity for
its operations, as part of an effort to boost nickel in
matte production to 200 million pounds, Siregar told
reporters.

"This year we are looking at 158 million (pounds)," Siregar
said. "We haven't completed our 2007 numbers. The main
problem currently is power (supply), Looking at the
available power currently, the number would be around that."

Nickel matte is an intermediary product from a smelter that
must be further refined to make pure metal.

Siregar said he expected the power plant project to be
completed by 2009 or 2010.

"We expect to complete all those negotiations by the end of
this year. And if everything is okay we will start the
project, hopefully early next year."

Inco Indonesia's 9-month output fell 9.45 percent in the
first nine months of the year, mainly due to a fire at one
of its furnaces.

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Indonesia's Medco to seek arbitration in mud flow dispute -
report

JAKARTA, November 13 (XFN-ASIA) - Oil and gas firm PT Medco
Energi Internasional is seeking arbitration in New York of
its dispute with PT Lapindo Brantas Inc over financial
responsibility for the mud flow in the Brantas block in the
province of East Java, Bisnis Indonesia reported.

For more than five months, mud has been flowing from the
vicinity of the Banjar Panji-1 gas well, deluging large
tracts of agricultural land and forcing thousands of
villagers from their homes, prompting President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono to declare the area a disaster zone.

The gas well forms part of the Brantas production sharing
contract. Lapindo Brantas, the operator of the Brantas
block, has 50 pct of the contract, while Medco has a non-
operating stake of 32 pct and Santos Ltd of Australia has a
non-operating stake of 18 pct.

Lapindo Brantas's parent company, PT Energi Mega Persada,
has said that the cost to Lapindo Brantas of cleaning up
after the mud flow and compensating those affected by it may
be around 106 mln usd over the rest of this year.

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Indonesia's Apexindo set to chalk up US$150 mln income this
year

JAKARTA, November 13 (Asia Pulse/Antara) - Publicly listed
oil drilling company PT Apexindo Pratama Duta (JSX:APEX) is
set to chalk up an income of US$150 million this year, up 29
per cent from last year.

The estimate is based on a hike in the drilling fee and
growing demand for drilling services, the management of the
subsidiary of PT Medco Energi Internasional told the Jakarta
Stock Exchange in a report.

Capacity utilization of its rigs is expected to reach 100
per cent for offshore rigs and 70 per cent for onshore rigs.

In the first three quarters, the company posted US$111.8
million in income or a 34.2 per cent rise from the same
period last year with net profit at US$26 million as against
a loss of US$9.7 million previously.

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Indonesia's Cilacap coal fired plant to be fully operational

JAKARTA, November 13 (Asia Pulse/Antara) - After the
operation of the first unit of the 2x300 megawatt Cilacap
coal fired power plant in February, the second unit is to
come on line later this week.
The new power plant to be officially commissioned by
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will be linked to the
Java Bali interconnection systems, the state-owned
electricity company PLN said in a report.

The coal-fired power plant is part of the government's
program to reduce dependence on oil fuel, the report said.

Using bituminous coal, the Cilacap coal fired power plant
saves 1.1 billion liters of oil fuel a year, it said.

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Thai Banpu Q3 net profit down, misses forecast

BANGKOK, November 14 (Reuters) - Banpu PCL , Thailand's
largest coal miner, said on Tuesday its third-quarter net
profit fell 47 percent from a year earlier due to higher
selling costs, the costs of closing a mine and an export
tax.

Banpu reported a net profit of 884 million baht ($24
million), or 3.25 baht per share, below an average profit of
897 million baht forecast by five analysts surveyed by
Reuters.

Its net profit was down from 1.68 billion baht in the same
period last year, but up from 807 million baht in the
previous quarter.

Analysts were positive about the company's earnings in the
fourth quarter and for next year as Banpu would book a gain
from power plant BLCP and should be helped by the Indonesia
government's suspension of an export tax in September.

Banpu said in August it expected its 2007 revenues to rise
more than 20 percent from the 30 billion baht estimated for
this year.

The third-quarter earnings were dragged down by a 32 percent
rise in selling costs to 5.16 billion baht following a rise
in production costs, while its revenues rose 12 percent to
8.44 billion baht, Banpu said in a statement.

Its gross profit margin dropped to 39 percent in the third
quarter from 48 percent in the same period last year and
36.8 percent in the second quarter, it said.

The company reported a one-time expense of 251 million baht
after it shut down Kitadin mine, one of Banpu's six mines in
Indonesia which account for 85 percent of Banpu's revenues,
due to low returns and high costs.

Banpu also operates two mines in China and two in Thailand.

The company booked a foreign exchange loss of 125 million
baht and posted an export tax expense of 238 million baht in
the July-September period.

Banpu said it gained 500 million baht from investments and
235 million baht from dividend income, most of which
analysts said probably came from selling of shares in
Aromatics and dividends from its Ratchburi subsidiary.

Banpu shares closed unchanged at 165 baht on Monday, while
the main Thai stock index <.SETI> fell 0.48 percent.

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Interview-MAE to produce biofuel in Malaysia, Singapore

By Ovais Subhani

SINGAPORE, November 13 (Reuters) - Singapore's MAE
Engineering Ltd. , which is building a biodiesel plant in
Malaysia, said it plans to buy palmoil and sugarcane
plantations across Southeast Asia and also plans to produce
bio-ethanol fuel.

Listed in 2000 as a construction engineering firm, MAE
Engineering is building its first 60,000 tonnes-a-year
biodiesel plant in Malaysia, which is set to start
operations in April.

It also plans to start building a 150,000 tonne biodiesel
plant and a 100,000 tonne bio-ethanol plant in Singapore by
2008, Chief Executive Officer Ong Puay Koon told Reuters in
an interview on Monday.

Both plants will be situated on Jurong Island, where
Singapore's petrochemicals industry is based.

"We will eventually become a biofuel manufacturer with
interests both upstream and downstream across the value
chain of the business," Ong said, adding that MAE wants to
buy a palmoil plantation in Malaysia or Indonesia to secure
feedstock for its biodiesel plant.

"We are looking for plantations, palmoil at first.
Downstream would be facilities to process biofuel by-
products like glycerin and fatty acids that will take us
into the oleo chemical business," Ong said.

He said that MAE Engineering plans to change its company
name to better reflect its new focus on biofuels, but
declined to reveal the new name.

MAE Engineering shares have soared almost fourfold this
year, taking the firm's market capitalisation to about $45
million.

The firm entered the biofuel business in September when it
took a 38 percent stake worth S$17.5 million ($11.26
million) in unlisted Lereno Sdn Bhd, which owns the
biodiesel plant that is under construction in Malaysia.

Lereno has a license to build biodiesel plants in Malaysia
and owns a patentable technology to produce without
additives a "winterised" biodiesel that would not coagulate
up to a low of minus 15 degrees celsius -- a specification
that meets the European Union standards for biofuels, Ong
said.

Ong said that MAE's restructuring from a construction firm
into a biofuel maker means it would likely post its fifth
annual loss in a row when its fiscal year ends in March
2007.

"It's difficult to be profitable this year as we still have
to write down a lot of assets from the company's previous
business," Ong said.
"But for March 2008 we are very hopeful, because by then we
will have some of the income of the Lereno biodiesel plant,"
he said, adding that the plant is expected to produce about
30,000 tonnes of biodiesel in 2007.

MAE's peers listed on the Singapore Exchange include Wilmar
International , which has three biodiesel plants starting
operations in Indonesia next year, and Advanced Holdings ,
which plans to build a biodiesel plant in Malaysia.

Wilmar shares have risen about 67 percent since Aug. 8, when
they started trading after a reverse takeover of Ezyhealth
Asia Pacific. Advanced shares are down about 26 percent this
year.

Australia's Natural Fuel last week broke ground for a plant
in Singapore that it said would eventually have the capacity
to produce 1.8 million tonnes of biodiesel, which would make
it the world's biggest such facility.

Germany's Peter Cremer and Singapore's unlisted CMS
Resources are also building biodiesel plants in Singapore.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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