Indonesian oil and gas firm Pertamina has allotted IDR33 trillion ($2.5bn) for the development of geothermal power plants in the country.
According to Pertamina president director Dwi Soetjipto, the country intends to raise its geothermal energy producing capacity to 907MW by 2019, from the present 505MW.
Dwi Soetjipto said: "We have put the development of geothermal energy in one of our strategic priorities and we’ve had the blue print for the development until 2019."
Once the 907MW target is reached, Indonesia will be able to reduce its oil consumption by 43,000 barrel oil equivalent per day.
The state-owned entity has been developing several geothermal power projects in the country, which includes Kamojang 5 (1x35MW) and Karaha (1x30MW) in West Java Province, Ulubelu 3 and 4 (2x55MW) in Lampung Province, and Lumut Balai 1 and 2 (2x55MW) in South Sumatra Province.
The firm is also developing other geothermal projects including Lahendong 5 and 6 (2x20MW), a small-scale plant of Lahendong (2x5MW) and Sibayak (1x5MW) in North Sumatra Province; Hululais 1 and 2 (2x55MW) in Bengkulu Province; and Sungai Penuh 1 (1x55MW) in Jambi Province.
These projects are expected to start commercial operations between this year and 2019.
PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE), a subsidiary unit of the Indonesian firm, is responsible for managing most of the projects, while the development is being undertaken by PT Rekayasa Industri.
