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ven before the city gas pipeline network project was officially launched last week, residents in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, already had gas for their kitchens.

“I used gas this morning to boil water and for cooking,” said Ida Mahmudah of Karang Jati subdistrict, Central Balikpapan.

Ida and other residents in the region are happy because they are exempted from paying installation fees. They can also get gas for lower prices compared to liquid petroleum gas (LPG) — branded as Elpiji — that they previously used.

With Elpiji, Ida, who has been using the pipeline gas for a week, previously had to spend Rp 36,000 a month on two 3 kilogram canisters of Elpiji. Now, with the pipeline network, she will likely only spend Rp 20,000 per month for the gas.

With the pipeline network, customers do not need to go to a kiosk to buy or hunt for gas tubes when there are shortages.

The pipeline gas is available for use 24 hours a day.

Starting on Thursday, Ida’s house is part of the 3,849 houses across Balikpapan that now receive gas right from the pipeline to the stoves in their kitchens.

It was also in Ida’s house on Jl. Panorama that Director General of Oil and Gas of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry I Gusti Nyoman Wiratmaja Puja dropped by and had the chance to demonstrate his cooking skills.

“I used to be a dormitory boy,” said Wiratmaja while cooking an egg while other distinguished guests from the House of Representatives, the oil and gas company PT Pertamina along with other companies watched, clapped and laughed together.

Wiratmaja said the development of the operation of the city gas network was an assignment from the government to PT Pertamina with funds worth Rp 49.7 billion from the state budget to develop the infrastructure, including the pipeline network from Pertamina’s refinery to the customers’ houses.

Neighborhoods nearby the gas refineries would be channeled with the pipeline to have cheap gas resources located next to their homes.

“For the project in Balikpapan, the gas comes from Chevron’s wells,” he said.

Chevron Indonesia operates, among others, in Sepinggan Field, a gas field in the Makassar Strait and on the tip of Balikpapan Bay. The supply from Chevron is predicted to last until October 2018 if no new resources are found around Balikpapan.

“We are producing 45 million to 46 million standard cubic feet of gas per day,” Chevron Indonesia Kalimantan’s vice president of operation and maintenance, Ruby Mulyawan, said.

He said Chevron had a number of resources that needed further exploration in order to study their respective gas content.

Apart from Balikpapan, with the 2017 state budget, the government is also planning to develop gas networks in Bontang, some 200 kilometers to the north of Balikpapan, and in Samarinda, the provincial capital of East Kalimantan.

Similar networks will also be developed in the regencies of Muara Enim and Penukal Abab Lematang Ilir in South Sumatra and in Mojokerto regency in East Java.

“The government allocates Rp 1.14 trillion to build new gas networks in a number of regencies and cities with between 53,000 and 59,000 home installations,” Wiratmaja said.

Linda Sunarti, president director of PT Pertagas Niaga, a subsidiary of PT Pertamina, which works on the project, said that her company also used non-city, non-regency budget funds to develop gas networks in Jambi city in Jambi province and in Perabumulih in South Sumatra.

“We have the goal of operating a total of 130,000 home installations by 2017,” she said.