Govt diverts four LNG cargoes for Sempra to Japan

The government has diverted four LNG cargoes from the Tangguh LNG refinery in Papua which was initially dedicated for Sempra in the US to Japan, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Thursday.

A source told the paper that the government obtained a higher selling price of US$20 per mBtu, compared to the selling price of $6 per mBtu to Sempra.

The source said that then Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Darwin Saleh had signed the agreement to divert some of the Tangguh LNG to Japan following a request from that country?s government after electricity production drop in the wake of the earthquake disaster.

?The approval to divert the LNG had been signed by pak Darwin. There has been a shipment to Japan earlier. The remainder will be made this month and in December,? the source said.

He added that the government benefited from the LNG market diversion because of the higher selling price, while it has to pay a diversion fee to the original buyer of only $0.9 per mBtu.

Spokesman of upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas, Gde Pradnyana confirmed that there has been extra LNG from Tangguh for Japan. (*)