Pertamina may sell gas from Abadi, Tangguh Train III

By Godang Sitompul

Upstream authority SKK Migas is considering state oil and gas company PT Pertamina's intention to become the seller of the state portion of gas output from Abadi field and Tangguh Train III, operated by Inpex and BP, respectively.

"In the future, the state portion would be marketed by Pertamina. We are considering prioritizing state owned companies to handle the gas sale," said Widhyawan Prawiraatmadja, Deputy for Commercialization Control at SKK Migas to Petromindo.com.

Widhyawan added that Pertamina could even sell gas output of state portion from Chevron's IDD project and ENI's Muara Bakau if there is extra production from the two fields. This is despite the fact that SKK Migas has appointed the operator of each field as the gas seller.

Under the current system, SKK Migas handles the selling of the state?s portion of the country?s gas output by assigning gas sellers. The state via the government generally gets 65 percent of gas output operated by production sharing contractors.

SKK Migas Chairman Yohanes Widjanarko confirmed about the possibility of Pertamina becoming the seller of gas of the government's portion.

"We are still in intensive discussion," said Yohanes to Petromindo.com.

Editing by Dadan Wijaksana