Indonesia needs to have additional LNG production capacity

Indonesia must explore the idea of having additional production capacity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the LNG refineries in order to gain more market share and boost the domestic gas production, Kompas newspaper reported in its Monday edition.

And this additional production capacity should not be related to the export contracts, said Kardaya Warnika, the deputy chief of oil and gas upstream authority BPMIGAS, in Jakarta this weekend.

Currently, Indonesia has eight LNG refineries at Bontang, East Kalimantan and six at Arun gas field in Aceh province.

It’s time for the government to build new LNG refinery before getting an export order. This way, we will always have gas surplus, Kardaya said.

Kardaya also mentioned that Indonesia is now facing problems in meeting the needs of domestic gas market and export orders. Moreover, it is very difficult to get LNG in the free market.

Being a large LNG producer, Indonesia must have additional production capacity of LNG he added. (*)