ExxonMobil resumes gas supply PT Arun NGL plant this evening

After being delayed for several times, PT ExxonMobil Indonesia has finally agreed to resume the operation of its gas fields in the troubled province of Aceh on Wednesday (today), paving way for the re-operation of PT Arun NGL Plant

Siddick Nitikusuma, a senior executive at Pertamina?s directorate for production sharing management, confirmed on Wednesday morning that ExxonMobil would commence its start-up operation later in the evening.

?Hopefully, the gas could be transmitted through the existing 42-inch pipes to PT Arun NGL plant at 08:00 o?clock in the evening today,? he was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.

According to Siddick, the gas transmission to the LNG plant would be part of the start-up operation of ExxonMobil?s gas transmission networks. He said that such a trial operation was aimed at cleaning up the pipelines and to ensure that all the existing gas transmission would be able to function as expected before launching its full operation in the next few days..

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina has for several times set deadlines for Exxon to operate. The latest deadline was set on Friday, last week, but Exxon again missed it and refused to heed Pertamina?s order on fears of that the reoperation would result in the escalation of the armed conflicts between the Free Aceh Movement and the military.

Pertamina has threatened to take over the operation of ExxonMobil?s gas fields if the company still failed to resume operation this week.

The American oil and gas giant ExxonMobil Indonesia closed the operation of its gas fields in Arun in early March due to security reasons. As the consequence, several companies, including the Arun LNG plant, which relied on gas supply from the company, was also forced to shut down their operation.

The export commitment of the Arun LNG plan has so far been fulfilled by Pertamina?s LNG plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan

But Pertamina has warned that the Bontang LNG plant will only be able to meet the Arun plant?s commitment until July. After that, Pertamina should procure the LNG from overseas producers to meet the export commitment to South Korea and Japan, which buy most of their LNG needs from Arun. (*)