JAKARTA, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is expanding a gas pipe project for households across the country with 500,000 gas-connected families were expected by 2019, an official said on Friday.
Ego Syahrial, director general for Oil and Gas at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said 78,315 gas-connected families across the nation have been targeted this year, making the total gas pipe connection to families to around 350,000 by the end of this year.
"This project is aimed at providing clean, affordable, environmental-friendly energy and efficient for the people. It has also been adopted as a national strategic project," he said on the sidelines of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) document signing with representatives of 16 regencies and municipalities.
According to Ego, the gas piping project for families would eventually enhance the nation's energy resiliency, accelerate the energy diversification and directly distribute outcomes of development to the people.
He added that the gas piping project would averagely cut Indonesian families' monthly allocation for gas expenditure into half.
The ministry has allocated some 886 billion rupiah (over 64,000 U.S. dollars) to finance the project this year.
