Mitsubishi Corp to import Indonesian crude
Friday, February 18 2005 - 01:14 AM WIB
Mitsubishi Corp. plans to import 20,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Indonesia for the next six to seven years under a contract the major trading house recently concluded with Pertamina, Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Friday morning edition.
Pertamina will supply crude oil as part of its repayment of the $310 million it borrowed from Mitsubishi and two other major Japanese trading houses as well as five Japanese and European financial institutions, including Mizuho Corporate Bank, to finance its natural gas development project.
Mitsubishi will sell the oil to Japanese power companies, where demand for Indonesian oil is strong thanks to its relatively low content of air-polluting sulfur.
The Mitsubishi-Pertamina deal will raise Japan's daily imports of Indonesian crude oil from the current 140,000 barrels to 160,000 bbls.
The supply of low-sulfur crude oil has become tight following suspension of imports from China.(*)