BP Indonesia to officially submit Amdal on March 18

BP Indonesia said on Thursday it will officially submit to the government on March 18 the documents on environmental impact assessment it had conducted in Tangguh, Papua province, where the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility will be built.

BP Indonesia vice president for public relations Satya W. Yudha said the documents will be handed over to the Central Committee for Environmental Impact Assessment (Amdal) which falls under the State Ministry of Environment.

The documents also contain BP Indonesia?s environment preservation and monitoring plans on the Tangguh project, Satya said.

?After officially handing over the documents, we shall conduct a presentation on them,? he told reporters at his office.

Satya added: ?We shall be given 75 days to improve the documents if the committee says they are incomplete,? Satya told reporters at his office.

BP Indonesia expects that the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) process in Tangguh will commence in the middle of this year.

In another development, Masnellyarti, deputy to the state minister for environment, only said: ?If we find that certain elements of the documents need to be reviewed, more time will surely be required.? Petromindo.com asked her whether her office would in July give a green light to BP Indonesia to construct the Tangguh facility as expected by the firm.

Tangguh has 14.4 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserve.

BP Indonesia expects the construction of the LNG plant to start in 2003 and to be completed in 2005. The outlook is that the plant will start producing LNG in 2006, with the first shipment to take place in the same year. (godang)