Indonesia to import LNG from Malaysia

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Malaysian LNG producer Malaysia Liquid Natural Gas Sdn Bhd, to cope with the shortage of its LNG production, Investor Daily reported on Monday.

The head of Pertamina's LNG marketing division, Poernomo said that the MoU, which was signed in late April, would serve as a master agreement in coping with the continued decline in its LNG production.

"With the agreement, we hope we will be able to meet our LNG export commitment," he was quoted as saying.

As earlier reported, Pertamina planned to import a cargo of LNG to meet the Aceh-based Arun LNG producer's export commitment to its Korean buyer. The LNG producer, jointly operated by Pertamina and ExxonMobil Indonesia, would not be able to meet its export commitment for May because part of the natural gas supply from ExxonMobil Indonesia has been diverted to Pupuk Iskandar Muda (PIM) and Asean Aceh Fertilizer (AAF) plants.

ExxonMobil whose gas supply is only enough to meet the gas needs of the Arun LNG plant is required by the government to resume its gas supply to the fertilizer plants, which have been idle due to the lack of gas supply. As the consequence, the Arun LNG plant will suffer a shortage of a gas supply to meet its LNG export commitment. (*)