Megawati inaugurates Tangguh LNG project

President Megawati Soekarnoputri officially inaugurates this morning the Tangguh LNG project, which is located in the easternmost province of Papua, the country's third LNG center.

The inauguration takes place in Jayapura, the capital of Papua. Megawati is on her visit to the province.

The BP-operated LNG project is expected to strengthen Indonesia's position as Asian leading LNG supplier and to accelerate development of eastern part of Indonesia, the BP Migas release said.

Tangguh development plan was confirmed when it secured contract to supply 2.6 million tons of LNG per annum to the Chinese province of Fujian for 25 years starting 2007.

Construction of the first two trains with the capacity of 7 million tons per annum is expected to commence in mid-2003.

Tangguh has 14.4 TCF of proven reserves and 18.3 TCF of proven and probable reserves.

Meanwhile a senior official from BP Indonesia Lukman Mahfoedz said Tangguh is eyeing huge Japan's market to market Tangguh excess capacity.

"Japan's LNG market is growing and we are expecting Japan to be our main customer. But we will also seek other marketing opportunities in other Asian LNG market such as South Korea and Taiwan," he said.

He further said the construction of the first two LNG trains will cost around US$ 3 billion. (alex)