No fix schedule yet for China visit: Purnomo

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Wednesday that there was no fix schedule yet to visit China in the near future to market Indonesia's LNG.

He told Petromindo.com through phone interview that his schedule was tight amid the current general election process at home, which may run until September.

But he acknowledged that China was a very important market for the country's LNG, and "must be seriously developed." He said that China's Shandong and Jiangsu provinces were seen as potential market for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Purnomo was commenting on an earlier report quoting a ministry official as saying that Purnomo planned to leave for Shandong province in early April to discuss plan to sell LNG. Purnomo, who is also the president of OPEC will fly to Vienna on March 25 for the oil cartel's March 31 meeting.

Late last month, a delegation from Shandong visited Indonesia, seeking to buy LNG from the Tangguh field.

Indonesia, one of the world's largest LNG producers, needs customers to take up an increase in supply coming from a swathe of new projects, including BP PLC's (BP) Tangguh LNG plant in West Papua province.

China's Fujian province has agreed to buy 2.6 million tons of LNG a year from Tangguh starting in 2007.(Godang)