Tangguh LNG aims for early deliveries

BP Plc and its partners in the $6 billion liquefied natural gas project in Indonesia plan to begin production earlier than estimated, said Ngurah Kresnawan, deputy vice president of the venture, as reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday.

The Tangguh venture is working to "ensure LNG can be delivered on schedule, and hopefully ahead of schedule," Kresnawan said on Wednesday, without giving a specific date. The project, 37 percent owned by BP, is due to start production in 2008.

Tangguh, which Mitsubishi Corp., CNOOC Ltd. and Inpex Corp. hold stakes in, has contracts to supply LNG to China's Fujian terminal, to buyers in South Korea and to a terminal being built on the western Mexican coast by Sempra Energy.

The plant in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua will initially have two LNG production lines, or trains, with a combined capacity of 7.6 million metric tons a year. BP and its partners are seeking more customers to justify an expansion of the plant, Kresnawan said.

"The expansion phase is part of the design that we already have," Kresnawan said at the South East Asia Australia Offshore Conference. The expansion "will pretty much be driven by when the additional markets are secured. I hope it's going to be as soon as possible." (*)