GOVT GUARANTEES GAS SUPPLIES FOR INDUSTRIES

Jakarta, March 11 (ANTARA) - The government guarantees the security of gas supplies to industries including the Chevron exploration project in Riau, a minister said.

"We have solved the problem of gas supplies for industries," Industry Minister Ms Hidayat said here on Thursday.

The minister made the remark after opening an International Furniture and Craft Fair Indonesia (IFFINA) 2010 on Jl Expo, Kemayoran, Jakarta.

It was suspected earlier that state-owned gas company PT Perusahann Gas Negara (PGN) had allocated gas exceeding 100 million metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) for the Chevron project in Riau and that this had caused a reduction by 20 percent of gas allocation for steel, ceramic and glass industries in West Java.

The minister said the government had held a meeting to discuss the problem and as a result a solution was found for the short-term. For the next step, though there would still be imports, the minister believed the government would find another solution to the problem for the long term.

He said the problem in the reduction by 20 percent of gas supplies to West Java had been solved in a meeting.

The result of the meeting would be announced by the minister for energy and mineral resources, he said.