BP upbeat to win China LNG deal
The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
A team from China has completed due diligence work on the Tangguh liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, with Anglo-American oil and gas firm BP Plc. confident of winning the multibillion dollar LNG supply contract.
The 11-member Chinese team ended their four-day visit to Indonesia on Friday, but they declined to give any comments to the press during a farewell gathering in the famous resort Island of Bali.
The team left for Australia late on Friday to conduct a similar due diligence process. It had previously visited Qatar.
BP Indonesia, the operator of the Tangguh LNG project in Papua province, is seeking to win a contract to supply three million tons of LNG per year to China's Guandong province beginning in 2005.
BP is competing with companies from Qatar and Australia.
China is expected to announce one or two winning bidders within the next one or two months.
Gerald J. Peereboom, the top official of the BP Indonesia Tangguh LNG project, was optimistic about winning the China contract because of Indonesia's strong track record in the LNG business.
He said that the Tangguh project would ensure the security of LNG supply to China because Indonesia was the world's largest LNG exporter, and was backed up by two other LNG plants in Arun, Aceh province, and Bontang, East Kalimantan.
He added that BP was offering a competitive price, but declined to disclose the figure.
Meanwhile, vice president of BP China George Vu said that the company's strong relations with the Chinese authorities should be a positive factor in its attempt to win the contract.
He pointed out that China had teamed up with BP to develop and manage a US$600 million LNG terminal in Guangdong province.
He added that BP's president had been appointed as one of the province's advisers.
BP earlier said that it would submit its final bid on Sunday for the supply of LNG to Guangdong.
Top Indonesian officials, including President Megawati Soekarnoputri, have also recently visited China.