PT Arun will dismiss 300 workers next year

PT Arun NGL Co, one of Indonesia’s two LNG producers, plans to lay off another 300 workers in January, next year due to a continuing decline in gas supply to the company, Suara Karya daily reported on Friday.

“The company has to lay off the workers because the supply of gas from ExxonMobil’s gas fields continues to decline,” the company’s media relations officer, Irwandar, said on Wednesday.

PT Arun currently employs around 600 workers.

The gas supply from ExxonMobil had been declining during the past five years due to depleting gas reserves. In 2001, PT Arun laid off some 230 workers.

Because of the lingering gas supply shortage, the company will reduce the gas processing capacity from six trains at present to three trains beginning next year.

The Lhokseumawe, North Aceh-based LNG producer, which began its export in 1978, sells larger part of its LNG to Japan and Korea. In 2004, PT Arun will, under the existing contract, export 110 cargoes of LNG to the two countries. (*)