Pertamina to ship 29 cargoes of Arun LNG in Q1 2002

State oil and gas firm Pertamina said Tuesday that it would ship 29 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Arun natural gas liquefaction (NGL) in the restive province of Aceh to Japan and South Korea next year, according to a Pertamina official.

?We expect to ship 7 cargoes of LNG in November and 9 cargoes in December this year to Japan and Korea,? said Effendi Situmorang, Pertamina?s upstream director in a press conference.

He said that since ExxonMobil stopped its gas operations due to security concerns last March, Pertamina had cancelled 65 cargoes of LNG from Arun.

?From the 65 cargoes cancelled, Pertamina only managed to substitute 24 cargoes from Arun NGL, East Kalimantan and the 41 cancelled cargoes caused government to suffer opportunity loss of US$ 410 million,? said Effendi.

Effendi told reporters that ExxonMobil?s gas fields, which feed natural gas to Arun NGL, had so far managed to produce 1.3 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day. Normally, ExxonMobil?s Aceh gas fields produce some 1.6 BCF of gas per day.

He predicted ExxonMobil?s Aceh gas operations would be able to return to normal production capacity mid-December 2001 as repair works in Pase A block and South Lhok Sukon gas fields had been showing progress.

Arun NGL resumed operations in August after ExxonMobil partially resumed its gas operations in the same month. (godang)