Purnomo, military top officials to visit ExxonMobil in Aceh next week

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Purnomo Yusgiantoro and top military officials would visit ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia operation in the troubled Aceh province next week as part of efforts to push the company to resume its gas operation there, a source told Petromindo.com.

The source added that ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia, a subsidiary of American oil and gas giant ExxonMobil Inc., has been making preparation to resume its gas operation in the Arun field in Aceh.

The source said that the preparatory work had been completed ahead of schedule, allowing one gas well called the Cluster-01 to be able to resume operation by the end of this month.

ExxonMobil was forced to shut down its gas operation in Arun fields in March due to worsening security condition in Aceh, where separatist rebels have been fighting for independence for decades. The shutdown has also forced the nearby PT NGL Co. to stop LNG production as it depends on the Arun gas field for raw material.

To ensure LNG supply to traditional buyers in South Korea and Japan, the state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina had asked the Bontang LNG unit in East Kalimantan to temporarily meet the contract.

But Bontang may not be able to continuously fulfill NGL?s international customers due to increasing demand starting next month.

Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim hoped that LNG export from the Arun plant could be started again before the end of July.(godang)