Indonesia to continue to seek for LNG cargoes swap until Feb

Indonesian upstream oil and gas authority BP Migas said on Wednesday that Indonesia would still be seeking for additional swap LNG cargoes from overseas LNG producers to fulfill its commitment to buyers until the first quarter of next year due to high demand and decrease in gas supply to Bontang LNG plant.

?The shortage is caused by high demand from South Korea and Japan buyers for winter requirement, combined with troubles in Unocal-operated Attaka field in East Kalimantan and other fields, which caused gas supply to decline,? said BP Migas chairman Rachmat Soedibjo. Unocal, together with Total and Vico supply natural gas requirement to Badak LNG plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan.

Rachmat said BP Migas had already assigned Pertamina to seek swap cargoes from Malaysia, Nigeria and Qatar. He hinted that Indonesia might be looking for four swap cargoes for next year.

However, Rachmat insisted that despite anticipated supply shortage in January and February, Indonesia would still be able to fulfill overall commitment for next year as gas supply is expected to return back to normal in the next few months and demands from buyers will ease after winter.

Earlier, Pertamina downstream director Petamina Harry Purnomo said that it had secured deal to get swap cargoes from Qatar and Nigeria for December shipment.

Another BP Migas official said that Arun LNG plant in Aceh could not help to supply additional cargo to fulfill Bontang?s shortage. ?Arun had experience natural gas supply decline, and the plants operations were disrupted for a week in December, making LNG stock in Arun running thin, said BP Migas deputy chairman Trijana Kartoatmodjo. (alex/godang)