[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia seeks investors in $1.6 bil LPG infrastructure effort

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Indonesian gas distributor PGN ramps H1 profit
217% to $121 mil

Platts Commodity News 
August 31, 2006

Indonesia seeks investors in $1.6 bil LPG
infrastructure effort

Indonesia aims to accelerate its effort to assist
households migrate from using kerosene to less
expensive liquefied petroleum gas and is seeking
investor participation in the effort, Vice President
Jusuf Kalla said Thursday.

"We need to invest Rupiah 15 trillion ($1.6 billion),
and are asking private companies to participate in
this. We want to speed up the program to four years
from six years originally," he said following a visit
to state-run oil company Pertamina.

Within four years the country aims to replace 90% of
kerosene consumption to LPG in order to alleviate the
burden on the government for subsidized kerosene
sales. Remote areas of the country would continue to
use kerosene, he said.

Investors are needed to build infrastructure such as
storage facilities, tankers and a processing plant. If
the goals can be met, the Indonesian government could
reduce its fuel subsidies by Rupiah 30 trillion due to
the lower cost for LPG, Kalla said.

The government has allocated Rupiah 42 trillion for
kerosene subsidies this year, of the Rupiah 54.3
trillion set aside for all oil product subsidies.

Pertamina trading and marketing director Achmad Faisal
has said that Indonesia consumes 10 million kl of
kerosene each year, roughly equal to 5.7 million tons
of LPG annually. Indonesia's LPG needs will reach
around 6.8 million tons annually after the kerosene
replacement program is completed, he said.

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Platts Commodity News August 31, 2006

Indonesian gas distributor PGN ramps H1 profit 217% to
$121 mil

Indonesia's state-owned gas transmission and
distribution company Perusahaan Gas Negara booked a
net income of Rupiah 1.10 trillion ($121 million) for
the first half of 2006, up some 217% from only Rupiah
347 billion in the same period last year, the company
said Thursday.

Income from operations reached Rupiah 1.49 trillion,
up about 106% from Rupiah 721 billion in H1 2005.

The Indonesian government plans to sell part of its
stake in PGN by November this year in a bid to meet
state budget targets, State Enterprise Minister
Sugiharto has said.

In 2005 the Indonesian government planned to sell a
7.1% interest in PGN to raise Rupiah 1.1 trillion to
help meet the state budget.

However that divestment plan was cancelled.

In December 2003 the government sold a 39% stake in
PGN in an initial offering of state-held shares. As of
end-2005 the Indonesian government still owned 60.3%
of PGN, according to Jakarta Stock Exchange data.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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