Chevron Power appointed for survey of resources at Mount Geureudong, Indonesia
Ulu Masen forest, Aceh, Indonesia (source: flickr/DFID, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
11 Apr 2013
Chevron Geothermal Indonesia hopes to win geothermal working area at Mount Geureudong, following its subsidiary being appointed for initial survey work on site in Indonesia.
Following the appointment of PT Chevron Power Services for preliminary survey work at Mount Geureudong, Chevron Geothermal Indonesia hopes to secure the geothermal mining working area there.
Paul E. Mustakim, in charge of PT Jasa Power Chevron said it would soon arrange to meet the local government prior to the preliminary survey. This was done in accordance to regulation by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources No. 1905.K/30/MEM/2013.
“Soon we will begin work on the survey which will be conducted over a one year period. This will help to establish the geothermal potential in the region,” he said in Jakarta, today.
Under Decree No. EMR. 1905.K/30/MEM/2013 the Chevron subsidiary was commissioned to conduct a preliminary survey in an area of 108 500 hectares. Results from the survey are expected to be published next year. Paul revealed that following the preliminary survey, the company will determine whether the working area has the capacity of 120 MW as estimated.
The results of the survey will be reported to the Ministry of Energy and provide the basis for the enactment of the territory as mining working area to then put up for tender.
According to him, the company has set up an investment of U.S. $ 1.3 million for work on the geophysical survey, geological, and geochemical in the region. To that end, Paul hopes Chevron can then continue the development of geothermal energy in Mount Geureudong. “We certainly hope to obtain permission for geothermal development in the region. To develop a geothermal power plant can then take about 6 years from preliminary surveys to operation of a plant,” he said. Geothermal development takes a long time in Indonesia, mostly due to the licensing process and the stages of development that takes to take geothermal reserves to an operating power plant.
Currently, Chevron Geothermal has two geothermal mining working areas that are producing in Salak and Darajat. WKP Salak geothermal has reserves of 337 MW, while Darajat has reserves of 270 MW.
The Indonesian government is encouraging the private sector to develop geothermal energy resources for the production of power. Besides have established feed-in tariff of electricity from geothermal energy, the government also recently provided Rp3 trillion to finance geothermal exploration process in a number of geothermal mining working area for private developers.
Director General of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (DG EBTKE) Ministry of Energy Rida Mulyana said Rp3 trillion will be provided from the Government Investment Center (PIP) to conduct geothermal exploration. That way, the government would have a better backup data and can be used as collateral for loans to banks.”
Source: Bisnis.com
