ExxonMobil assess situation in Aceh
JAKARTA (JP): U.S. oil and gas company ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia Inc. has sent a team to Aceh to assess whether security has improved enough for it to resume operations, an executive at Pertamina said on Tuesday.
The state oil and gas company's director for production sharing partners, Iin Arifin Takhyan, said ExxonMobil wanted to double check Pertamina's statement that it was safe for the company to resume its operation in Aceh.
"They (ExxonMobil) want to make their own assessment to see things from their point of view," Iin said.
He confirmed earlier remarks by another Pertamina official that security in Aceh had improved enough for ExxonMobil to return.
But because Pertamina and ExxonMobil have a different view of what constitute a safe environment, he said, the American company needs assurances from their own observations.
"ExxonMobil wants to make sure that once it has entered Aceh, it won't be forced out again," Iin explained.
ExxonMobil suspended its gas operation in Aceh in early March because of continued harassment by armed groups, believed to be local rebel forces.
The halt in the company's operation cut off the natural gas supply to the nearby liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant of PT Arun NGL Corp. and cause the suspension of LNG exports to Japan and South Korea.
Arun has been able to meet its export commitments to the two countries with surplus LNG from the Bontang plant in East Kalimantan.
However, Bontang's LNG surplus is expected to be depleted by June, after which Japan and South Korea will have to rely on other gas producers.
Indonesia risks losing some US$100 million in LNG exports a month if ExxonMobil's suspension of operation goes beyond June.
According to Iin, a meeting between ExxonMobil and Pertamina this Friday will determine whether the company will resume operations.
ExxonMobil spokesman Julia Tumengkol, however, was unable to confirm the planned meeting on Friday, saying she had heard nothing about such a meeting.
She further said the company evaluated Aceh's security situation on an ongoing bases. "We already have a team down here that is studying the security situation," she told The Jakarta Post.
Julia said the company relied on security reports from aerial photographs, its own employees and the military.
ExxonMobil has dispatched a team to prepare an operation start-up should the company give the go-ahead.
Pertamina estimated that ExxonMobil would need two weeks to begin supplying natural gas to Arun. It would then take Arun another week to begin producing LNG.(bkm)