Pertamina delegation to visit Korea, Taiwan in March

State oil and gas firm Pertamina will dispatch a team to South Korea and Taiwan early next month to hold talks with liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyers from those countries, Pertamina?s downstream director Muchsin Bahar told Petromindo.Com Monday.

?The visit aims to maintain good relationships with our LNG buyers from those countries,? Muchsin said.

While in Korea, Pertamina delegation will also discuss the possibility of Indonesia immediately shipping 1-2 cargoes of LNG to that country, Muchsin said.

Earlier reports said Korea Gas (Kogas) was seeking nine additional cargoes of LNG from Indonesia to be shipped immediately to that country. The Korean company is actively seeking additional supply of LNG due to an increase in domestic LNG consumption.

Pertamina said however that it could not fulfill Kogas? request because it was not sure whether Bontang LNG plant in East Kalimantan could supply nine cargoes of LNG as requested.

Pertamina is Kogas? top LNG supplier with 8.19 million tons of LNG shipped annually.

Last week, another delegation of Pertamina visited Japan to negotiate with LNG buyers from that country whose contracts with the Badak LNG plant in Bontang are to expire in a couple of years.

The delegation had planned to persuade Japan?s LNG buyers to switch some orders to the Tangguh plant in Papua.

Indonesia is the biggest LNG exporter in the world with more than 23 million tons annually going to Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. (godang)