FID for Tangguh Train III project expected before end 2014

By Godang Sitompul

BP Indonesia, the operator of the Tangguh LNG project in West Papua, is expected to make the final investment decision (FID) for the expansion of the project, known as Tangguh Train III, before the end of 2014.

Deputy for Commercialization Control at upstream authority, Widhyawan Prawiraatmadja, told Petromindo.com on Thursday an important part of the FID is the signing of sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for the output to be produced from the Train III project. He said that BP is currently in talks with several potential buyers.

?Before making the FID, we can?t say it (Tangguh Train III) as a go project. FID from BP is expected before end 2014 or early 2015,? Widhyawan said. ?What?s certain is that when the FID is made, the SPA must also be already secured.?

BP is currently undertaking an expansion of the existing Tangguh LNG facility, called The Tangguh expansion project, located in Bintuni Bay West Papua. The existing facility consists of 2 x 3.8Mtpa trains of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, with associated onshore infrastructure, two offshore platforms, pipelines and wells.

The Tangguh expansion project will include Onshore and Offshore facilities, where the Offshore expansion is proposed to include two new platforms together with 24? pipelines to provide gas to the proposed additional 3.8Mtpa LNG train.

Previous reports said that the commission and first LNG shipment from the planned Train III facility is expected in 2018 and 2019, respectively. About 40 percent of the output is to be allocated for the domestic market.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak