ExxonMobil Oil to resume its operation Friday

ExxonMobil Oil to resume its operation Friday

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina said
on Wednesday ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia, a unit of the U.S.-based
Exxon Mobil Corp., would resume its operations at the Arun gas
fields in Aceh on Friday, four months after the company was
forced to turn off its gas taps due to increasing security
threats.

Iin Arifin Takhyan, Pertamina's director for upstream
operations, said preparatory work for the resumption of
operations were nearly complete.

"ExxonMobil is still conducting some tests to see whether or
not the wells still work properly. We expect the company to
restart its operation in the next two days," Iin said.

He made these comments following the presentation of an ISO
14001 certificate by German certification agency TUV Indonesia to
Pertamina, for environmental management at its lube blending
plant in Cilacap, Central Java.

Also present at the ceremony was TUV Indonesia president
Markus Hattemer.

The timetable given by Iin was the most specific since
ExxonMobil halted the operation of its Arun gas fields in March.

However, ExxonMobil spokesperson Julia Tumengkol declined to
confirm Iin's statement.

"We cannot give any confirmation as our preparatory work is
still underway. The problem is that we are evaluating the
preparatory work on a daily basis," she told The Jakarta Post.

ExxonMobil has never give a definite timetable on when it will
resume its operation. It hinted last Saturday that the resumption
of operations would take place within weeks.

Iin said after ExxonMobil resumed operations at its gas
fields, the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the
nearby PT Arun NGL would gradually resume. Arun NGL, which relies
on ExxonMobil for gas supplies, halted its LNG production soon
after ExxonMobil halted its gas production.

He said ExxonMobil would initially resume operations at two
clusters, before including the other two clusters to reach a
normal level of production.

ExxonMobil groups its gas wells in the area in four clusters.
The company was producing an average of 1.6 billion cubic feet of
gas and 30,000 barrels of condensate daily before it suspended
operations.

Indonesia has insisted ExxonMobil restart its Aceh operations
promptly because LNG demand in North Asia is expected to peak in
the summer, and production at Pertamina's other LNG center in
Bontang, East Kalimantan, will be insufficient to meet all of
Pertamina's LNG supply commitments.

Following the shutdown of Arun NGL's LNG plant, Pertamina
transferred the plant's LNG orders, mostly from Japanese and
South Korean buyers, to the Bontang LNG plant.

But Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim said earlier the Bontang
LNG plant could only guarantee supplies to the buyers until the
end of June.

Beyond June, he said, the Bontang LNG plant would no longer
have excess supplies due to an increase in demand from its
customers.

Indonesia lost US$10 million a month from March to May as a
result of the halt of ExxonMobil's gas operations, according to
Pertamina.

Regarding the awarding of the ISO certificate, Iin said such
certificates would be crucial in the near future as consumers
required good quality and environmentally friendly products.

"They (businesspeople) must seek certification for their
products if they want to survive the stiff competition of the
coming free trade era," Iin said.

"We hope the presentation of the ISO 14001 certificate will
prompt other lube plants across the country to earn
certification." (03/bkm)