Pertamina proposes to reschedule 9 cargos of LNG in 2005

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina confirmed Thursday it was in negotiation with Japanese customers to reschedule the shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the country.

“They (Japanese customers) principally agreed about the rescheduling plan. However, the negotiation for further details is still on going. We propose about nine cargos (to be rescheduled) for 2005 shipment,” said Ari Soemarno, senior vice president of marketing and trading at Pertamina.

Indonesia has been struggling to meet its LNG supply commitments, hit by a spate of production problems and increasing demand at home. The authorities have diverted some gas supplies to the domestic market and away from LNG facilities.

Indonesia operates two LNG facilities. The Arun complex, which is located in Aceh province, consists of six LNG trains with a total production capacity of 12.3 million tons of LNG annually. Meanwhile, the eight-train Bontang complex in East Kalimantan has 21.6 million MT of production capacity.

The Indonesian government has notified 11 Japanese firms, including Chubu Electric Power Co., Kansai Electric Power Co. and Osaka Gas Co., as well as electric power and gas companies in South Korea and Taiwan.

The deputy of upstream authority BP Migas, R.S Trijana Kartoatmodjo said earlier that Arun’s LNG has the commitment to export 76 cargoes next year, or three cargoes below its production capacity of 79 cargoes.

"With assumption that the two fertilizer plants (in Aceh) will require about 12 cargoes a year, PT Arun needs additional supply of nine cargoes to keep the two fertilizer plants in operation," Trijana said. (godang)