Pertamina says Exxon finally agrees to restart Aceh gas operations

State oil gas company Pertamina said Friday the Indonesian subsidiary of American energy giant ExxonMobil Corp. had finally agreed to restart its gas operations in Aceh.

Pertamina?s director for production sharing management Iin Arifin Takhyan told reporters that vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri, after a meeting with minister of energy and mineral resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro and Pertamina?s president Baihaki Hakim, had given the formal order for ExxonMobil to restart operations.

?ExxonMobil has agreed to mobilize equipments and workers to the gas field to start repairing the broken pipelines,? said Iin.

Iin said with the resumption of gas operations by ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia Inc.,PT Arun NGL Co, which relies on the company for its gas supplies, was expected to be able to re operate two of its four liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains on July 4.

Arun was was then expected to fully operate all of its four LNG trains end of July.

?The plan is to prioritize gas supply to Arun natural gas liquefaction, to meet the contract with Korean and Japan liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyers from August onward,? said Iin.

Separately, Army?s chief of general staff, Lieutenant General Djamari Chaniago said the armed forces were ready to take necessary measures to secure the operations.

Djamari said there would not be additional troops deployment since the present force had been considered sufficient to back up operations.

Meanwhile, source in ExxonMobil told Petromindo.com that starting next week, ExxonMobil contractors would start maintenance work at the gas field and indicated that ExxonMobil would start repairing the gas pipeline.

ExxonMobil was forced to shutdown its gas production facilities early March due to worsening security condition in Aceh, causing Arun NGL and fertilizer plant Pupuk Iskandar Muda which depended solely on gas supply from ExxonMobil to stop operations. (alex)