Indonesia, Australia shortlisted to sell LNG to China: Report
Friday, January 18 2002 - 02:12 PM WIB
Qatar also made the list of potential LNG suppliers, said an official with Australia LNG Pty., which markets gas from the $7.2 billion North West Shelf fields and LNG plant. Chinese officials couldn't be reached for confirmation about Qatar or how many groups are on the shortlist.
China said it would award the contract to two suppliers, to be selected in the next few weeks. They will sell an annual 3 million tons of LNG to the terminal in China's southern city of Shenzhen starting 2006. The 20-year contract is worth about $500 million a year.
BP won a contract last March to help build the Shenzhen LNG project, in which it will hold a 30 percent stake. Analysts said that improved its chances of securing the more lucrative LNG supply contract.
BP and its Indonesian partners have been urging China to buy gas from Tangguh, a project that will pump gas from fields in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya.
``We expected to get into the next round of selection since we have been rather aggressive in our bids,'' said Ivony Pertiwi, an official with BP Indonesia's LNG marketing team.
Meanwhile, French oil giant TotalFinaElf SA, the fourth-largest publicly traded oil company, said it plans to bid to sell gas to Guangdong after BP Plc completes the first phase of construction in 2005.
Total's Indonesian unit supplies 60 percent of the gas that's chilled into liquid form by PT Badak LNG, the world's biggest LNG plant, on Kalimantan Island.
``We are targeting Guangdong phase two, or terminals in Shanghai'' that China aims to build, said Jacques Rutman, vice- president for Total's Indonesian unit.
China's demand for natural gas is expected to quadruple by the end of the decade to account for 8 percent of the country's total energy supply. (*)