Pertagas won?t buy E1?s shares in NGL project

PT Pertagas, a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, will not buy the shares of South Korean firm E1 Corp. in a natural gas liquid (NGL) projet in South Sumatra, a company top manager said in Jakarta on Monday.

The South Korean firm has announced its pullout from the NGL plant project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2012.

?We don't have any plans to buy its stake. Without E1 participation, the project will run on schedule, and the EPC contract with PT Tripatra Engineering will be signed on May 7, 2010 as the latest,? Pertagas president director Suharyanto said.

He noted that E1 has a 34 percent stake in the US$192 million project, which will be built to extract NGL from some 300 MMCFD of gas to be supplied by Pertagas? sister company PT Pertamina EP and Medco EP. Pertagas holds a 56 percent stake with the balance held by a company owned by South Sumatra provincial administration.

The South Korean firm earlier said it pulled out of the project but did not unveil the reasons.

The plant is designed with a production capacity of 150 tons per day (BPD) of excess propane, 2,150 BPD of condensate and 546 TPD of LPG. (Bernard)