JAKARTA, July 31 (Reuters): Indonesia's state energy company PT Pertamina expects Bangladesh to make a decision late this year on a gas supply and power project proposed by the Indonesian company, its director Heru Setiawan said on Wednesday.
The governments of Indonesia and Bangladesh signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) in 2017 to open talks on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as well as infrastructure such as a power plant and floating storage and regasification unit.
Pertamina has proposed building a gas power plant with a capacity of 1,400 megawatt that could consume about 150-200 million standard cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas which Pertamina is expected to supply, Setiawan told the news agency.
He declined to disclose the potential size of any investment.
Bangladeshi State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, said on the sideline of a gas conference in Jakarta on Wednesday that Pertamina's proposal was curently under consideration.
Bangladesh, a country of more than 160 millon people, was also looking to buy more coal from Indonesia, he added.
"Bangladesh is a growing country, so we need a huge amount of power for our development. That's why we are looking for potential markets to import gas and coal from because we are setting up a few coal power plants," he told reporters.
Bangladesh could be "a big potential market" for Indonesian coal exports and the country could buy up to $1 billion worth of coal from Indonesia as coal power plants come online later this year and in next few years, he said.
China and India are currently among the top buyers of Indonesian coal.
Meanwhile another report by Jakarta Post adds: Bangladesh is seeking more cooperation with Indonesia in the energy sector, especially for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to support its growing industrial sector, Nasrul Hamid said.
"We have a number of gas fields, but [the gas] has begun to deplete, so we need huge gas supply for our growing industry, as we're now the second-largest garment exporter," he said at the Gas Indonesia Summit and Exhibition 2019 in Jakarta.
He added in his opening speech that the country had invested US$25 billion in the energy sector over the last six years and planned to invest more in the future.
