BP Amoco targets China for its LNG market

The country's largest gas production sharing contractor BP-Amoco Co. Plc. said it would target China as its largest market for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) that it would produce from its $3 billion Tangguh refinery, Irian Jaya.

The head of Energy Analysis BP Amoco Co. Plc., Andrew Barton, said China with its huge population would continue to buy LNG from Indonesia, the world's largest LNG exporter.

"China market is very prospective, and Indonesia will remain the largest LNG exporter in the world. Therefore, we rely on China as the largest market for our LNG from Tangguh," he said.

Minister of Mines and Energy Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Director General of Oil and Gas Rachmat Sudibyo and BP Amoco Indonesia president Bill Schrader are currently in China to market LNG from Tangguh.

The Tangguh refinery, when it is completed, will be the largest LNG refinery in Indonesia.

Barton said that LNG demands from China was evidence when the country had just completed an LNG terminal in Southeast China, in a bid to use more LNG, the cleaner and more efficient energy source, in the whole region.

Nevertheless, Barton warned that Indonesia was not the sole supplier of LNG for China. There were many competitors preying China now, including Australia, Qatar, and other Middle Eastern countries. (*)