Arun NGL Co stops LPG production due to lack of export orders

Arun NGL Co, Indonesia's major liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer in Aceh province, has no longer produced liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) due to the lack of orders from its foreign buyers, Suara Karya reported Monday.

Arun NGL Co's spokesman said that the halt in the LPG production had caused a major decline in the company's total LPG exports during the first semester of this year.

"The fall is caused by the lack of orders from foreign buyers rather than by the uncertainty in the security situation in the province," the company's spokesman Rustam Effendi said in its statement to the management of the Medan-based port operator PT Pelindo Indonesia I.

Pelindo reported last week the decline in the company's LNG and LPG exports, and said that the decline could be caused by continued conflicts between the separatists and the security officials.

Exports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from the Aceh-based LNG producer Arun NGL Co showed a sharp decline in the first semester of this year to 7.66 million tons (61 tankers) from 11.77 million tons (94 tankers) in the same period, last year, or only about 32 percent of the total exports in 1999, according to data provided by PT Pelabuhan I in Medan.

Exports of LPG fell by 82 percent to 23,676 tons in the January-June, this year from 120,633 tons in the same period, last year. The condensate exports also declined by 80 percent to 47,656 metric tons in the first semester this year from 246,141 tons in the same semester of last year. (*)