Badak NGL asked to produce LPG this year

State owned oil, gas firm PT Pertamina has asked PT Badak NGL, the operator of Bontang LNG plant in East Kalimantan, to produce LPG again so that the target of the LPG-kerosene conversion program could be met.

The LPG supply shortage under the program this year reaches around 909,000 metric tons (MT), Pertamina?s Director of Marketing and Trade Djaelani Sutomo said on Tuesday

?We urge Badak NGL to resume the production of LPG to cover the shortage. We don't know how much Badak can supply. If possible, they will cover the whole shortage," he said.

In January this year, Pertamina?s deputy director of marketing Hanung Budya said Pertamina has received notification from upstream oil, gas authority BPMIGAS that PT Badak NGL, also known as Bontang LNG, would have no spare capacity to produce LPG this year as all of gas input would be turned into LNG to meet its LNG customers? needs.

Badak NGL's president Agus Haryanto said in December last year that Bontang would produce and ship 288 cargoes of LNG in 2010 if it did not produce LPG.

Pertamina bought all of LPG produced by Bontang LNG last year. Badak NGL restarted LPG production on June 15, 2009 after years-long suspension due to lack of gas feed. (godang)