PGN grew out of a private Dutch-owned company established in 1859. Today, it is a national public utility enterprise with a duty to develop a pipeline infrastructure for natural gas distribution across the archipelago. The pipelines must be properly maintained in order to transport gas to an array of existing and future consumers, such as households and industry. In 2003, PGN became a publicly listed enterprise when the Indonesian government divested about 39 per cent of its share in the company.
Two milestone pipeline projects have been completed by PGN in the past few years. First the 536 km Grissik-Duri pipeline in 1998, and second, the 470 km Grissik-Singapore pipeline via Batam in 2003. PGN has an almost 60 per cent stake in Transgasindo, which owns and operates two transmission pipelines from South Sumatra to Central Sumatra and Singapore. These strategic pipelines are part of the Indonesian government's grand scheme to create the country's integrated gas transmission system.
Focus on training
From the first day of its relationship with DNV, PGN realised the value of training its staff to be able to fulfil the company's commitments. In 1999 a group of 12 PGN engineers and designers came to DNV's headquarters in Oslo for a three-week training session, focusing on both the basics and the latest innovations in offshore pipeline design. The participants of the 1999 training programme are now senior project managers in PGN.
Though having extensive experience with constructing and operating a wide network of onshore gas pipelines, PGN had identified a need to know more about offshore pipelines as the company will install several offshore gas pipelines in the near future. They requested DNV to conduct a training programme for their key personnel this autumn. The training involved a one-week course in DNV Singapore followed by a one-week design exercise in Oslo. The session ended with a one-week round trip in Asia studying best practices relating to pipeline fabrication, manufacturing and construction.
A few weeks later, 12 representatives of PGN's top management were invited to a training session in Oslo. This was followed by meetings in Italy with pipeline company Saipem and then with Sonsub, a subsea contractor and engineering company. Both Saipem and Sonsub are part of the Italian conglomerate ENI.
Speaking at the training session, project manager M. Napitupulu, the general manager of the strategic business unit M.M. Trijono, and the head of the operations division Triyono Heriyanto said that coming to Oslo was a valuable experience and had taught them a lot. They also felt that such training sessions were very useful for the further development of the company's relationship with DNV.
Acknowledged standard
PGN has decided to use DNV's offshore pipeline standard for all new pipeline designs. Over the years, the DNV pipeline standard has become the world's most acknowledged standard.
Earlier this year, the company signed a contract with DNV regarding the basic design and risk assessment of an offshore gas pipeline. The pipeline will be about 160-km long and stretch from the southern tip of Sumatra to West Java, just east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
"DNV will provide basic design, risk-assessment and project-costing activities, giving us sufficient information to invite tenders for procurement contracts for long lead items and later on to hire an engineering, procurement and installation contractor," explains M. Napitupulu.
DNV will carry out the work from its Kuala Lumpur office, where the company has established a team of pipeline engineers with extensive design experience.
Optimism in Indonesia
The recent Indonesian election, held on 5 April 2004 has resulted in a new wave of optimism in this populous country, which has 220 million inhabitants spread over 16,000 islands. A new atmosphere has developed, with optimism and initiative as key words for how the population and industry approach the future. New legislation is expected within the area of environmental protection and pipeline integrity management. This will certainly influence PGN's future, and the company is more optimistic than ever as new licences are expected tol be issued in the near future.
