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World’s Largest Lpg Gas Filling Station Opens

Indonesia’s vice president Jusuf Kalla has inaugurated the world’s largest lpg filling station in Jakarta. The station, run by PT Pertamina, the state owned oil and gas company, has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day and aims to support the Indonesian government’s kerosene to lp gas conversion programme, which started two years ago. “If we unite in our objectives, we can do everything faster and better. PT Pertamina had earlier asked for one year for the facility’s completion, but I said two months. And it has been done within two months,” said Mr Kalla at the inauguration of the new station in Plumpang, north Jakarta.

The station, equipped with 120 filling machines, joins 10 other lpg filling stations in Greater Jakarta, and 97 nationwide, although most of them are much smaller. During the ceremony, Mr Kalla asked Pertamina to build more lp gas filling stations in other provinces. “West Java, Central Java and East Java should have lpg filing stations with a capacity of 1,000 tonnes a day each, and we need 500 tonnes a day lpg gas filling stations in Sulawesi and Sumatra,” he said. “I asked that there be 1,000 tonnes a day lpg filling stations in other provinces besides Jakarta so that other stations can cover lp gas supply if there’s a malfunction in one lpg filling station in a province.”

Mr Kalla also asked the state firm to ensure security of supply to the filling stations. “If there’s a shortage of gasoline, people can travel by bus. But it will be harder for them if they run out of lpg because kerosene is no longer available in abundance,” he said. The lack of lpg gas filling stations and 3kg cylinders has sometimes seriously slowed the programme’s progress since it was started in December 2006.

The programme, now expected to be completed by the end of this year instead of 2010, is aimed at slashing spending on kerosene subsidies. Pertamina’s president director Karen Agustiawan said the company had set a target of 23 million households to receive a package of a 3kg lpg cylinder and an lp gas stove free of charge by the end of this year. Lpg demand has continued to increase in Indonesia since the programme started. Total lpg demand may exceed 3 million tonnes this year, including 1.6 million tonnes for the 3kg lpg cylinders.

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