JAKARTA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is planning to build two additional Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plants by the end of this year as the Southeast Asian nation aims to strengthen domestic energy supply and reduce dependence on imports.

The country's Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force, locally known as SKK Migas, told local media on Thursday that they have identified two gas reserves operated by PT PHE, the upstream unit of state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina, containing propane and butane used for LPG.

The two gas reserves were at the Jambi Merang Block located between the provinces of Jambi and South Sumatra, and the Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) Block located two km north of Karawang, West Java province.

SKK Migas chief Djoko Siswanto said that the task force and PT PHE were planning to build the LPG plants in the two blocks in the near future.

According to him, the Jambi Merang Block has the capacity of producing around 200 metric tons per day, while the ONWJ Bloc's capacity is around 180 metric tons per day in domestic LPG.

Siswanto said that the country's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia has signed on the allocation and the gas price schemes.

In November last year, Lahadalia said that the government wants to have more LPG plants with a production capacity of 1.5 million to 2 million tons per year.

He explained that the country's LPG consumption currently reaches 8 million tons per year, but domestic production can only meet around 1.9 million tons, leaving the remainder to be covered by imports.

Siswanto stated that SKK Migas expects the two upcoming gas projects to come onstream within seven months in continued efforts to boost Indonesian production. Enditem

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