Pertamina wants govt to hand over LNG plants

State oil company Pertamina said on Tuesday it wanted the government to hand over all liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants as part of moves to transfer assets to the firm which is due to be privatized in 2006.

Pertamina is due to become a limited liability company in April and the government has said it would hand over some of the company's assets -- valued at 180 trillion rupiah (US$20.28 billion) -- to the holding company.

"The government will soon decide which assets will go to Pertamina and which will not. We want LNG assets to be given to Pertamina," Pertamina President Director Baihaki Hakim told reporters.

"I believe most of the assets will likely go to Pertamina," he added.

Pertamina will lose its monopoly status over much of Indonesia's energy sector under the privatization plan which the firm has said was scheduled for 2006.

Pertamina, together with foreign firms operates Arun LNG plant in Aceh and Bontang LNG plant in East Kalimantan with a combined annual capacity of 26 million tonnes.

Indonesia is one the world's top LNG exporters with more than 23 million tonnes annually going to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Pertamina also has nine oil refineries with a combined capacity of just more than one million barrels per day (BPD). (*)