State-owned gas company PT PGN, as gas subholding of state owned energy company PT PERTAMINA, on Thursday, August 8, 2024, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PT Likuid Nusantara Gas for cooperation in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sector in East Java.

The MoU was signed by Rosa Permata Sari as Strategic and Business Development Director of PT PGN and Wira Rahardja as CEO of PT Likuid Nusantara Gas which is part of PT LNG.

In the MoU, PGN and PT LNG agree to cooperate on LNG sale and purchase in order to meet the needs of domestic natural gas. Then in order to support domestic market penetration, both companies will do joint study in the development of natural gas infrastructure or LNG terminal in Pasuruan, East Java, and other potential related to operational activities and LNG's facilities and infrastructure maintenance.

PT Likuid Nusantara Gas is an integrated energy company with experience in natural gas. In September 2023 , PT LNG secured a potential domestic gas supply that will be commercialized by LNG model.

"We hope that the current cooperation potential signed in the form of MoU can be realized soon in the concrete phase. We see the synergy between what is dreamt by PT LNG and what is done by PGN and the business ecosystem today,” Rosa Permata Sari said.

“Today, the need of natural gas is high in the island of Java. However, the supply of gas from certain regions needs transportation facilities, not only through gas pipeline but also other transportation modes such as CNG and LNG," she added.

Therefore, Rosa said, the current growth of retail is significant. "On the pricing side, I think the market can receive LNG penetration. We’ll see to provide reliable natural gas energy that can be accepted by all sectors of the society.”

Wira Rahardja said that energy subsidy or dependency on import of LPG is huge enough that the business, the government and state-owned enterprises can cooperate to reduce government burdent.

"We see that the cooperation with PGN is one of the strategy that we cannot deny. With the support from PGN Group and the government, we believe that the LNG project can contribute for the government’s efforts to reduce LPG burden in the form of subsidy of LPG's import,” he said.