Pertamina considers gas swap

State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina is considering a proposal to swap the gas it will import from the US with the gas that Indonesia must export to buyers in Japan or South Korea, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.

Under the plan, gas to be imported by Pertamina from the US will be diverted to meet Indonesia?s LNG export obligations to buyers in Japan or South Korea, while gas initially dedicated for the export will be used by Pertamina to meet domestic demand, explained Salis Aprilian, Senior Vice President for Management of Operation and Engineering at Pertamina?s Gas Direcorate.

?There is possibility for us to swap the gas (from) import ,,,,? Salis said, but fell short of providing further details about the swap plan.

Pertamina signed in December of last year an LNG sales and purchase agreement with Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC, a subsidiary of US firm Cheniere Energy Inc, under which Pertamina has agreed to import approximately 0.8 million tons per annum of LNG from the Corpus Christi Liquefaction Project starting 2018.

Salis said that the import volume will be expanded to 3 million tons per annum starting 2020. The LNG will be allocated for five receiving terminals including four floating storage and regasification units in Jakarta, Cilamaya, Porong, and Cilacap. (*)