Five million more households to use gas for fuel

The government hopes to built gas pipe networks for 5 million household consumers in the next 10 years at a cost of Rp70 trillion.

Utilization of gas as household fuel is more efficient, said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said, when commissioning the ground breaking ceremony to mark gas network projects here on Monday.

In five years or by 2019 networks of gas pipes are expected to be already installed for 1.3 million households with an investment of Rp18.2 trillion.

The projects would be financed with funds from the state budget, state-owned energy company PT Pertamina and state owned gas company Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN).

With 1.3 million households using gas for fuel , the country is estimated to save Rp936 billion a year, the minister said.

Most households and commercial consumers in urban areas in the country use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is relatively expensive.

Based on the availability of gas and infrastructure of transmission pipelines in 38 cities , gas could be distributed to around 7.9 million households with a cost of Rp111.3 trillion, Sudirman said.

So far the government already built gas pipe networks serving 204,766 households in a number of cities in Indonesia including pipes built by Pertamina and PGN.