BP migas says Indonesia no longer needs to buy spot LNG cargoes

Indonesian upstream authority BP Migas said on Wednesday that Bontang and Arun natural gas liquefaction plants would be able to meet LNG cargoes shipments to customers and would not need to buy LNG cargoes from overseas at least until June this year.

?Based on production capacity of Aceh and East Kalimantan gas suppliers and LNG shipments schedule, we expect that Indonesia would be able fulfill LNG shipping commitments without buying from overseas spot market,? said BP Migas vice-chairman Kardaya Warnika. ?We are safe at least until June,? he said

Kardaya?s comment came amid reports that Indonesia is scrambling meet LNG shipment commitment for its customers due to gas supply problems in Aceh and East Kalimantan. Kardaya did not give further detail.

Indonesia, however, had purchased one LNG cargo from Oman last January to swap shortage from Arun.

ExxonMobil is forced to allocate some of its gas production in Aceh to fertilizer makers amid dwindling gas supply due to reserves depletion, while East Kalimantan gas producers such as Vico, Unocal Corp and Total SA were also having problems to maintain production rate of around 3.7 BCFD.

BP Migas had also reportedly sent team to South Korea and Japan for shipping reschedule.

Meanwhile, Pertamina?s downstream director Harry Purnomo confirmed that it had just cancelled talks to buy spot cargoes from Oman and Nigeria. ?We cancelled the talks because we are now able to meet commitments,? he said.

Indonesia is currently the world?s top LNG producer, exporting around 27 million tons of LNG per year. (Godang)