Bontang LNG plant to boost annual output to 21.6m tons
Bontang LNG plant to boost annual output to 21.6m tons
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned oil company Pertamina plans to increase the annual capacity of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan, to 21.6 million tons by the year 2000, with the operation of two new production trains.
Toerki Witoelar, a deputy president of Pertamina subsidiary PT Badak NGL Co., which operates the Bontang plant, said the plant's six existing trains currently produce 15.4 million tons of LNG per year.
"The gas from the two new units will be shipped to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan," Toerki said on Friday, as quoted by Antara. He was speaking in Bontang after a ceremony marking the 2,500th shipment of LNG to Japan.
Bontang's seventh train is presently being constructed by PT Inti Karya Persada Tehnik (IKPT), a private engineering company controlled by timber baron Mohamad (Bob) Hasan. The train is slated to come on stream in 1997 with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tons.
The construction of the eighth train, which will also be built by IKPT, is scheduled to start in 1997. The US$900-million train is scheduled to commence production in 1998, with an annual capacity of 2.9 million tons.
Pertamina has signed a loan agreement with the Japanese Export Import Bank, Bank of Korea and Bank of Taiwan to finance the construction of the eighth train.
Toerki said the Bontang LNG plant is supported by 35 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves in East Kalimantan.
He added that the Bontang plant has produced 142 million tons of LNG between 1977 -- when it started up operations -- and last week, of which 127.5 million tons were exported to Japan.
Besides the six LNG trains in Bontang, Pertamina currently also operates six other trains in Arun, Aceh, with a combined capacity of 26 million tons per year.
Meanwhile, Badak NGL general manager Imam Mulyono said the Bontang plant currently liquefies 100,000 cubic meters of LNG per day.
The 2,500th shipment of LNG by Aquarius tanker on Friday was also witnessed by an executive of Chubu Electric Company of Japan, the buyer of the LNG.(04)