Hyundai wins gas platform project

JAKARTA (JP): State oil and gas company Pertamina has appointed a subsidiary of South Korea's contractor Hyundai Heavy Engineering to build a US$129 million natural gas platform west of the Natuna island chain.

Spokesman of Pertamina's foreign contractors management body (BPPKA) Sidick Nitikusuma said on Monday that Hyundai, in a joint venture with local company Citra Panji Manunggal, received the recommendation from the West Natuna gas consortium to build the facilities to exploit natural gas in the South China Sea.

Pertamina president Martiono Hadianto gave his approval on the recommendation in a letter sent to the consortium last Thursday.

It is part of the multibillion dollar project to channel natural gas to Singapore.

The consortium and Pertamina signed an agreement in January this year to supply natural gas from West Natuna to Singapore's Sembawang Gas (SembGas) for 22 years starting from 2001.

The West Natuna gas consortium named Hyundai to build the gas platforms after an open tender in which its $129 million bid was the lowest.

Also bidding were PT McDermott Indonesia, Brown and Road and Gema Sembrown.

By regulation, the tender result has to be approved by Pertamina's president.

The consortium also recommended PT McDermott Indonesia, a subsidiary of American company McDermott Corp, in the construction of the 650-kilometer (km) underwater pipeline to channel natural gas from West Natuna to Singapore.

Conoco of the U.S., Britain's Premier Oil and Canada's Gulf Resources are consortium members.

Sidick said Pertamina would decide whether to accept the recommendation by early next month.

McDermott proposed the lowest bid at US$335 million for the project, outdoing other firms including Saipam of Italy, ETPM of France and Japan's Nippon Steel.

Several legislators have protested the recommendation, citing the partnership of McDermott with former president Soeharto's close associate Mohamad "Bob" Hasan. (jsk)