Indonesia buys LNG cargo from Algeria for buyers
Indonesia buys LNG cargo from Algeria for buyers
Bloomberg, Jakarta
Indonesia, the world's top exporter of liquefied natural gas,
bought a cargo of the fuel from Algeria to help meet export
commitments after the Southeast Asian country channeled its
natural gas supplies to domestic users.
The country is resorting to buying LNG from rivals to
supply customers in Japan and South Korea after asking Exxon
Mobil Corp., which supplies natural gas to Indonesia's
oldest LNG plant in Arun, to sell its gas to fertilizer
makers in Indonesia.
A blast at an LNG plant in Algeria that killed 24
people on Jan. 19 destroyed half the Skikda facility 500
kilometers east of Algiers, in the worst accident in the LNG
industry's 40-year history. Sonatrach, Algeria's state-owned oil
company, blamed a faulty boiler for the blast.
"We bought the cargo before the fire. It will be used
to compensate for Arun," Harry Purnomo, director for
downstream affairs at PT Pertamina, Indonesia's state oil
company, said in Jakarta. "The price is expensive."
Earlier this month, the government ordered Exxon to
supply 75 million cubic feet a day of natural gas to the
fertilizer makers. The move reduced natural gas supplies to
the PT Arun NGL plant in the northwestern Indonesian
province of Aceh.
Indonesia was seeking as many as eight cargoes of LNG
from rival producers Nigeria, Oman, Qatar and Malaysia for
Arun customers, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister
Purnomo Yusgiantoro said earlier this month.
Three cargoes are needed for the first quarter alone
as the South Korean and Japanese buyers refused Indonesia's
proposal to delay shipments to the second quarter, he said.
The country has earlier bought one cargo from Oman, the
state oil and gas regulator said earlier this month. One
cargo of LNG holds about 60,000 metric tons of the fuel.
PT Arun is 55 percent-owned by Indonesia's state oil
company PT Pertamina, 30 percent-owned by Exxon Mobil and 15
percent-owned by Japan Indonesia LNG Co. The plant's
customers also include Tohoku Electric Power Co.