Tohoku agrees to buy more LNG from Arun

Japanese electricity company Tohoku Electric Power Co said it had agreed with state electricity Pertamina to buy three more cargo vessels of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Arun, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

The first delivery would be made early October, the second would be in mid October, and the last shipment would be carried out at the end of this month.

"This October, we will buy a total of four cargo vessels from Pertamina, including one alternative cargo vessel from Bontang terminal," a Tohoku spokesman said.

One cargo vessel of LNG contains about 57,000 metric tons of LNG.

Meanwhile, Pertamina said that it hoped the purchase of LNG from Tohoku would help Arun gas plant to operate normally, with all gas fields in all clusters in Arun, operated by ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia, to be operational by the end of this month.

It was Tohoku electric power that made the first order on August 18 for LNG shipment from Arun after the Arun plant was shut down for four months due to security concern in the restive province of Aceh.

Tohoku had bought two more cargo vessels of LNG from Arun in September. Tohoku normally bought about 3 million tons of LNG from Arun. (*)