Indonesia's revenue from Tangguh increases by $2.2b

The Indonesian government will get an additional income of US$2.2 billion from the Tangguh LNG plant as a result of the revision of the selling price for the LNG to be produced by the plant, according to upstream authority BP Migas head Kardaya Warnika.

Kardaya said BP Migas and CNOOC had agreed to revise upward the crude oil ceiling price, as the benchmark for the selling price of LNG Tangguh, from $25 to $38 per barrel. Under the old price, Tangguh LNG cost a maximum of $2.6 per MMBTU, while under the new price, the highest price is $3.5 per MMBTU.

Kardaya also said a recent meeting in Hong Kong on June 9 concluded that bank loans worth US$3.5 billion for the Tangguh LNG project will be disbursed starting next month.

Kardaya said Bank of China and Japan Bank for International Cooperation had committed to loan about $950 million and $1.2 billion, respectively, to the project, while the Asian Development Bank will disburse its private sector loan facility of $350 million. Other commercial banks are expected to finance the project at a total of $1 billion, Kardaya added.

BP, the operator of Tangguh, is building a huge LNG complex in Papua with first phase-annualized capacity of 7.6 MTPA, which is almost fully marketed. CNOOC had booked 2.6MTPA for Fujian. South Korean firms SK and POSCO would jointly buy 1.1 MTPA and US energy trader Sempra Energy would buy 3.7 MTPA for North America market.

According to Kardaya, the Tangguh project is now 44 percent completed. (godang)