Pertamina still handles LNG marketing

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina voiced on Monday its commitment to handling the marketing of Indonesia LNG, retracting a previous threat to hand over the job to oil and gas upstream authority BP Migas and gas producers.

?There is no intention (to stop handling the marketing of Indonesian LNG). We are still committed to the sales and purchase agreements that we have signed,? Pertamina?s president Ari W. Sumarno said.

Earlier, Ari warned that Pertamina would stop handling the marketing of Indonesian LNG and would let BP Migas and gas producers that supply gas to the country?s LNG plants to handle the job.

The warning was expressed following the ability of the country?s LNG plants to meet its supply commitment to buyers. The LNG plants could not meet the commitment due to the lack of gas supplies.

Such a situation forced Pertamina to travel to several countries, including Qatar, to order LNG to fulfill Indonesia?s commitment to buyers. The job was proved not easy as the amount of LNG that Pertamina has been able to secure is too small to cover the total shortfall of Indonesian LNG supplies. Pertamina handled the marketing of Indonesian LNG for decades when it still monopolized the industry. Under the new law, the authority to handle the marketing lies with BP Migas but the agency has assigned the firm to continue handling the marketing job.

Indonesia will lack a total of 79 LNG cargoes to fully meet its annual export commitment to buyers this year and the supply shortfall is expected to increase in the coming years. Thus far, Pertamina was only able to secure four cargoes of LNG from Qatar to cover the shortage.

?We are hopeless. From next year on, we let BP Migas and gas producers to handle the marketing,? Ari then said.

Analysts believe Ari made the statement out of frustration over the inability of Indonesian LNG producers to meet their export commitment to buyers. (Alex)