Consortium ready to develop Banten LNG terminal

By Bernard Loebs

State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina has on April 1 signed a head of agreement (HoA) with PT Bumi Sarana Migas (BSM) on cooperation to develop a land-based LNG receiving terminal in Bojanegara, Banten.

Ari Soemarno, senior project coordinator at BSM, a company linked to the family of Vice President Jusuf Kalla, said that Japan?s Mitsui Co and Tokyo Gas, which are two other members of the consortium developing the project, also signed the HoA. He, however, declined to disclose the share ownership of each company in the project.

Meanwhile, Pertamina President Director Dwi Soetjipto said in a statement that the LNG receiving terminal, which will have a capacity of 4 million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG, is expected to be completed in 2019.

The statement added that Pertamina will utilize the entire capacity of the LNG terminal for 20 years for LNG regasification.

Ari said that the capacity can be expanded up to 10 MTPA in the future, depending on demand.

To help finance the project, he said that discussions are ongoing with Japanese financiers including JBIC.

He said that state-controlled gas distribution firm PT PGN Tbk has expressed interest to also utilize the planned LNG terminal. He added that Mitsui is studying a proposal to develop a gas-fired power plant in Bojanegara.

Elsewhere, Ari said that LNG for the terminal is expected to come from domestic sources such as the Tangguh Train 3 project or from Bontang, while imports from Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, and Mozambique are also possibility. ?I have visited Brunei, and they can supply the LNG,? he said.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak