BP Indonesia to continue development of Tangguh LNG trains

Anglo-American gas company BP Indonesia will go ahead with its plan to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains in Tangguh, Papua province, and LNG from the facilities will be supplied to China?s Fujian province, LNG Tangguh president director Gerald J. Peereboom said on Friday.

According to Peereboom, supplying LNG to Fujian will be quite meaningful for the commercialization of the Tangguh gas field.

LNG Tangguh will initially have two trains each having production capacity of 3 to 3.5 million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG.

Indonesia had failed to win the contract to supply around 3 million tons of LNG per year to Guangdong province in southern China. China had awarded the contract to Australia, which, together with Qatar and Indonesia had been shortlisted in the LNG contract tender.

Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongzie recently advised President Megawati Soekarnoputri about the outcome of the contract tender and about the Chinese government?s decision to award Indonesia, without prior tender, the contract to supply some 2.5 million tons per year of LNG to Fujian.

Meanwhile, BP Indonesia vice president Satya W. Yudha said Indonesia supplying LNG to Fujian could trigger the opening of a bigger LNG market in China.

?Presently, China needs 8 million tons of LNG annually,? Satya told reporters on Friday.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said earlier the government would soon form a task force team to prepare terms and condition of the contract to supply LNG to Fujian.

Purnomo said a team from China would come to Indonesia in September to discuss with the task force team about the gas supply contract. (godang)