Force majeure still possible for Arun: Pertamina

State oil and gas company Pertamina, which operates the Arun LNG plant in North Aceh, has not ruled out the force majeure option for the plant.

The firm?s downstream director Muchsin Bahar said on Monday that a Pertamina team was still investigating the plant?s problems.

?It is still possible that we declare force majeure on the plant?s obligation to customers,? he said.

Muchsin?s statement contradicted those by several officials of the country?s upstream authority BP Migas, who said the plant?s problem had been fixed and the possibility of force majeure was remote.

The plant was forced to close down late last month due to problems in gas supply from ExxonMobil?s gas fields and power blackout at the plant.

Gas supply to the plant has been restored and the power supply problem has been fixed, but, Muchsin said, the plant was still operating on an ?emergency mode?.

He said Arun still had the obligation of sending 10 cargoes of LNG to customers for September, while at present, while the plant had only one cargo of LNG in stock.

Meanwhile, the Badak LNG plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan will not be able to cover possible shortage of LNG supplies from Arun, because it is now running at full capacity, according to Muchsin. (Alex)