Indonesia lobbies LNG buyers hard to reduce supply

Upstream oil and gas authority BPMIGAS said it had asked Pertamina to lobby Indonesian LNG buyers harder to accept further supply reduction in order to avoid overseas LNG buys.

?We are trying to minimize overseas LNG buy to only one to two cargoes for this year,? BPMIGAS deputy chairman in charge of gas marketing Eddy Purwanto told Petromindo.Com on Wednesday.

Eddy said Bontang LNG would experience around 14 cargoes shortage out of the 322 cargoes agreed in 2006 Annual Delivery Program (ADP)

He did not say what would happen if the East Asian buyers refused.

Pertamina president director Ari Soemarno earlier said that buyers, especially from Japan had indicated unwillingness to further defer or cancel the cargoes. Ari said that the Japanese buyers demanded that Indonesia substitute the cargoes, which means Indonesia must seek to buy overseas LNG to meet its commitment.

Ari earlier said Pertamina might turn to Oman and Qatar for help.

Eddie, however, said that thus far no talks with overseas LNG suppliers were held.

Bontang, currently the world?s largest LNG plant in operation is unable to meet supply commitment due to gas supply decrease from two major East Kalimantan gas suppliers; Vico Indonesia and Chevron. (alex)