Pertamina to invest $2.5bn on geothermal projects in Indonesia

Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas company Pertamina has announced plan to invest $2.5bn on geothermal power plant development in the country.

The investment will help boost the capacity of the geothermal power plants from 505MW to 907MW by 2019.

Pertamina said that the geothermal plants will help the country in reducing dependency upon fossil fuel, and will save 43,000-barrel oil equivalent per day.

The company is already developing several geothermal plants including Kamojang 5 (1×35 MW) and Karaha (1x30MW) in West Java Province, Ulubelu 3 and 4 (2×55 MW) in Lampung Province, and Lumut Balai 1 and 2 (2×55 MW) in South Sumatra Province.

Other projects include Lahendong 5 and 6 (2×20 MW), Lahendong (2×5 MW) and Sibayak (1×5 MW) in North Sumatra Province; Hululais 1 and 2 (2×55 MW) in Bengkulu Province; and Sungai Penuh 1 (1×55 MW) in Jambi Province.

Pertamina said that its subsidiary Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) is managing the development of the projects while development is carried by Rekayasa Industri.

Pertamina president director 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.

"All of the geothermal projects have a total capacity of 505MW for which the value of investment reached $2.5 bn."

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Image: Units 1 and 2 at Ulubelu Geothermal Power Station. Photo:courtesy of Sumitomo Corporation.