E1 quits S. Sumatra NGL project

South Korean firm E1 Corporation is pulling out of a natural gas liquids (NGL) plant project in South Sumatra for undisclosed reason, Joint venture partner PT Pertamina Gas (Pertagas) said on Tuesday.

Pertagas President Suharyanto said that E1 has notified Pertagas about its intention to quit the project.

E1 has 34 percent stake in the US$192 million project, which will be built to extract NGL from some 300MMCFD of gas supplied by Pertagas? sister company PT Pertamina EP and Medco EP. Pertagas, a subsidiary of state oil and gas company PT Pertamina (Persero) holds 56 percent stake with the balance held by a company owned by South Sumatra provincial administration.

Suharyanto said E1 might sell its shares to Pertagas or to third party company. The decision is expected to be reached this week, he said.

The project is expected to be completed in 2012.

Suharyanto said EPC contract with to build the plant with PT Tripatra Engineering is expected to be signed on May 7.

The plant will run a production capacity of 150 tons per day of excess propane, 2,150 BPD of condensate and 546 TPD of LPG. (godang)