Minister of State Enterprises Mustafa Abubakar has promised to help solve the acute gas supply shortage being suffered by state gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN)."We will meet with PGN's president soon to find the best solution in dealing with the gas supply shortage," Mustafa said in response to PGN's plan to reduce its gas supply to ceramic producers by 20%. Mustafa said the government should be able to provide a solution to ensure the state gas distributor would be able to meet the gas needs of its customers, especially labour intensive manufacturing industries. The gas shortage is reportedly because a large portion of existing domestic gas supply had been diverted to local power plants, but this also reflected wider problems with LNG exports. According to the Indonesian Ceramics Ind Assoc, its members are only able to get between 20+40% of total demand.
