Humpuss again wins LNG contract from Pertamina

JAKARTA (JP): PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi has again won a contract from the state-owned oil company Pertamina to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Bontang, East Kalimantan to several Japanese cities.

Under the US$180 million contract signed here yesterday, Pertamina will charter a small vessel, co-owned by Humpuss, to transport Pertamina's LNG from Bontang to the Hiroshima Gas Company in Hiroshima, the Nippon Gas Company in Kogashima and the Osaka Gas Company in Osaka for 15 years starting from the end of 2000.

Humpuss Intermoda president Subroto Purwosutarto said Pertamina had an option to renew the contract for another 10 years after the contract expires in 2015.

Operations director Budi Halim told The Jakarta Post, Humpuss currently owns and operates 12 vessels and tankers -- four methanol tankers, five oil tankers, and three LNG vessels -- and builds four other tankers and vessels, including the one owned by the Medium City Gas Company (MCGC).

All of the vessels were chartered by Pertamina, he said.

The new vessel has a capacity of 22,500 cubic meters of LNG, compared with a medium-sized LNG vessel which has a 125,000 cubic meter capacity and the largest LNG vessel with a 170,000 cubic meter capacity.

The vessel is owned by a consortium called MCGC Two Inc., 45 percent owned by Humpuss, and 65 percent owned by its Japanese partners, Mitsui OSK Line and Nisho Iwai.

Subroto said the $80 million vessel would be built by Japan's shipbuilder NKK Corporation which was scheduled to complete it by the end of 2000.

The financier is the Japanese Development Bank.

Pertamina's president Faisal Abda'oe said the company chartered small-sized vessels to transport its LNG to small-size customers in Japan, to increase domination over the Japanese LNG market.

He said Indonesia had long dominated the Japanese LNG market but new producers, like Qatar, had recently started entering the market and troubling Indonesia's domination.

"We have to also tap middle-lower size buyers before our competitors come to take it," Faisal said. (jsk)