Arun gas restart in June: Minister<\/p>\n
VIENNA (Reuters): Indonesia hopes to reopen gas fields in the
\nrebellious Aceh province "sometime" in June and resume valuable
\nexports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Energy Minister Purnomo
\nYusgiantoro said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Yusgiantoro said security was still the main issue for the
\nfields' closure but about 24 soldiers were guarding installations
\nat the fields and the key PT Arun NGL gas plant on the island of
\nSumatra.<\/p>\n
"Arun is still shut in but we are preparing to reopen sometime
\nthis month. We are hoping to be ready from a security standpoint
\nand for infrastructure and alignment of instrumentation,"
\nYusgiantoro told Reuters. The minister was attending an OPEC
\nmeeting in the Austrian capital.<\/p>\n
Exxon Mobil Indonesia -- a unit of U.S.-based Exxon Mobil Corp
\n-- closed three gas fields in March, halting output at the Aceh
\nLNG plant and forcing utilities in Japan and South Korea to seek
\nalternative supplies.<\/p>\n
Exxon attributed the closure to the cumulative effect of dozen
\nof security incidents over the past two years in the province,
\nwhere separatist rebels have been seeking independence for
\ndecades.<\/p>\n
Exxon Mobil is Indonesia's second-largest LNG producer with
\ntotal output of 1.6 billion cubic feet per day. In mid-May it
\nsaid it would send in a security mission to the province to
\ninvestigate reopening the fields.<\/p>\n
Indonesia is the world's biggest LNG exporter and its economy
\nrelies heavily on oil and gas exports.<\/p>\n
Yusgiantoro said he did not expect any long-term negative
\nimpact from the supply outage, despite its leading customers
\nhaving to scramble for supplies elsewhere.<\/p>\n
"We are not worried by people being put off from buying from
\nus or from investing in Indonesia because LNG demand is strong
\nand growing from places like China and India," he said.<\/p>",
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