News
12 August 2014

Pertamina Operate World’s Largest VLGCs

David Tyler visited Pertamina recently and met Marketing and Trading Director - and WLPGA Board member - Pak Hanung Budya, and his LP Gas team, to discuss progress on the kerosene to LP Gas conversion programme.

Since the program started in 2007, Pertamina has distributed more than 55 million initial packages (3kg cylinder, stove and accessories) to households and microbusinesses in over 29 provinces and 364 cities throughout Indonesia. Before the conversion programme, average LP Gas demand was only about 4 thousand tons per day (kMt/day). Today, after 6 years of running the conversion program, the average has increased significantly to more than 18kMt/day.

To support the acceleration of the LP Gas business in Indonesia, Pertamina has been developing its LP Gas infrastructure in the form of storages and distribution facilities, including filling plants, transportation trucks, and vessels. In 2014, Pertamina began operation of two Very Large Gas Carriers (VLGC’s) named Pertamina Gas 1 and Pertamina Gas 2.

They are the largest and the most sophisticated vessels of their type in the world. Marketing and Trading Director Hanung Budya said the VLGC will reinforce the number of Pertamina’s vessels. This will underpin LP Gas stock levels, increase efficiency and improve the distribution of LP Gas to all the people of Indonesia. Pertamina Gas 1 and Pertamina Gas 2 are multi-purpose vessels that are not only LP Gas carriers, but they also serve as floating storage and offloading (FSO) facilities at the same time.

They act as   motherships for smaller pressurised vessels to distribute LP asG to the various regions of Indonesia. Pertamina operates the two VLGC’s with its own crew. Indonesia consists of thousands of islands, presenting a great challenge for Pertamina to secure the distribution of energy throughout the country.

These vessels contribute to those efforts and will also be used for international trade. The two vessels were built at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. in South Korea with the capacity of 84,000 cubic meters each (equivalent to 50,000 tons). The Indonesian flagged vessels meet the environmental, quality, security and protection requirements referred to by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations and fulfill requirements set by the international qualification agency which is certified by Lloyd’s Register (England) and fulfils the requirements of the International Gas Standard (IGS) as well as getting final inspection approval from the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF).

Apart from these two VLGC’s, a partnership program with the domestic maritime industry continues. Some new vessels, built in shipyards by PT PAL Indonesia, are now entering the final stages of construction. By 2015 – 2016, there will be about 7 new vessels that will support and secure the LP Gas business in Indonesia.

For more information about this story contact David Tyler dtyler@worldlpgas.com