Idle LNG capacity of Bontang will reach 20 cargoes next year

The idle capacity of the Bontang liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in East Kalimantan will reach between 4 and 6 cargoes this year and 20 cargoes next year as local market could not yet absorb them due to a lack of gas infrastructure, a senior official of the oil and gas upstream regulator BPMIGAS said.

?We, therefore, have to sell it on spot market. For how long, we don?t know yet. It?ll depend on when the local receiving terminals will be realized. The developers of the infrastructure will confirm it in June. If there is no confirmation until that time, we?ll sell them to the international market,? BPMIGAS? operational deputy chairman Budi Indianto told the press in Jakarta on Monday.

He noted that the development of the infrastructure would take between 6 months and one year. ?In July we should prepare a deal for the LNG sale. We need at least eight months for the preparations of gas deal. The preparations include administration procedures, legal process, and scheduling,? he said.

According to him, if the receiving terminals are not yet ready, they will have between 24 and 26 cargoes of LNG that could be sold on the international market.

He added that for selling at the spot market, they have to do some road shows to potential buyers, particularly countries that have had receiving terminals, like South Korea and China. (bernard)