Pertamina to buy LNG from Nigeria

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina plans to buy two cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Nigeria to meet the export commitment of the Aceh-based LNG producer PT Arun NGL, Koran Tempo reported on Friday.

Pertamina's director for marketing Ari Sumarno said in Jakarta on Thursday that the state owned oil and gas company was negotiating the purchase of the two cargoes of LNG from Nigeria.

"We hope the deal could be concluded this week," he said, adding that the two cargoes of LNG will be used to meet PT Arun's export commitment for August and September. He, however, said that as Pertamina acted only as a negotiator in the deal, the decision whether or not to buy the LNG from Nigeria would be made by the government.

ExxonMobil, the only gas producer in Aceh, has agreed to provide gas supply of about 60 million 60 million thermal units per day to Aceh-based state owned fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Iskandar Muda after the government guaranteed that it would import LNG to meet part of PT Arun's export commitment.

The deal has been made because the current production of the ExxonMobil's gas field is only enough to meet the export commitment of PT Arun NGL. (*)