Pertamina ready to offer El Paso gas stake: Report

State-owned oil company Pertamina said on Tuesday it was ready to offer energy firm El Paso Corp a stake in upstream gas operations as part of negotiations to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the United States, Reuters reported.

Pertamina's upstream director Iin Arifin Takhyan said more talks were needed between the two sides following last month's signing of a memorandum of understanding.

"We are still in discussions with El Paso about the possibility of exporting LNG to the U.S. and Pertamina is ready to offer El Paso a stake in upstream gas operations," Takhyan was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"We will offer a competitive price to our potential LNG buyer and offering a stake in upstream gas operations is one of our strategies to market our LNG," he added.

El Paso said last year it had tentatively agreed to begin buying LNG in 2005 to ship to California. Under this plan, LNG would be bought from a Phillips Petroleum Co. plant near the northern Australia city of Darwin.

Indonesia is the world's biggest LNG exporter with more than 20 million tones a year. The main buyers are Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. (*)