Chubu still committed to buy Donggi Senoro LNG: Pertamina

Japanese firm Chubu Electric Power Co is still committed to buy LNG from Donggi Senoro LNG project despite the fact that the project is still in limbo due to lack of government approval to export the LNG, a top official from state oil and gas company PT Pertamina said on Thursday.

?Chubu is still committed to buy LNG from Donggi Senoro project. They even expressed intention to increase offtake volume,? President Director Karen Agustiawan told reporters.

Pertamina holds a 29 percent participating stake in Donggi Senoro LNG, which is located in Central Sulawesi, while PT Medco Energi Internasional holds 20 percent and Mitsubishi holds a controlling 51 percent share.

The consortium signed last February a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with Japan?s Chubu and Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc, stipulating that each of them would be supplied with one million ton of LNG per annum from the plant for 15 years, starting end of 2012.

However, the contracts and project are in a state of limbo as Vice President Jusuf Kalla announced in mid June that gas from the Senoro and Matindok fields should be should domestically.

Kansai Electric then announced that it canceled plan to buy LNG from the project.

Government then trying to find domestic buyers to offtake LNG produced from the project, but thus far, none of the potential buyers such as state fertilizer firm PT Pupuk Iskandar Muda, state electricity firm PLN and state gas distribution firm PGN are willing to buy the gas at the same price as Chubu and Kansai would pay. (kanti)