Pertamina to sign another LNG deal with Philippine oil firm

The state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina is expected to sign another Letter of Intent (LoI) next week with PNOC, a Philippine oil company, to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Tangguh project in Irian Jaya, according to Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim.

?We expect to sign it next week,? Baihaki told reporters in Samarinda Thursday.

He declined to provide details of the planned deal.

On Wednesday, Pertamina signed a similar deal with another Philippine power firm called GNPower.

Baihaki said that Pertamina would launch an aggressive market effort for the Tangguh LNG project, which is jointly being developed with BP.

He said that Pertamina and BP were intensifying efforts to lobby the Chinese government to win the LNG supply contract for China?s Guangdong province.

Baihaki said that he would also fly to Japan, after completing the Nov. 14 OPEC meeting in Vienna, to negotiate LNG supply with Osaka Power and Tohoku Electric. The LNG supply should start in 2007/2008.

Baihaki was optimistic that the Tangguh project would come on stream in 2005.

The Tangguh gas field in Irian Jaya has a 18.3 trillion cubic feet of certified proved and probable natural gas reserves. The plant will be able to produce 7 million tons of LNG per annum from two initial processing trains.(Alex/Godang)