Japan's Tohuku shifts LNG imports away from Indonesia

Japan's Tohuku shifts LNG imports away from Indonesia

TOKYO (AP): One of Japan's largest electric power companies is shifting natural gas procurement away from Indonesia after violence by separatist rebels in Aceh province disrupted production, a company spokesman said Saturday.

To offset the shortfall, Tohoku Electric Power Co. in recent days increased natural gas orders from politically secure Malaysia after Tohoku's main supplier, Indonesia's state owned oil company Pertamina, cut off shipments, said Yasuki Yamagata.

Rebels earlier this week attacked an oil depot belonging to Pertamina in the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe, about 1,800 kilometers northwest of Jakarta. Several drums of oil were blown up but no one was injured.

The Indonesian subsidiary of Texas-based Exxon Mobil, which drills for the natural gas and supplies it to Pertamina's Arun LNG plant, cut production in the province due to the security problem. Since then, Pertamina has been unable to honor its supply contracts, said Yamagata.

Tohoku Electric, based in the northern city of Sendai, relies on natural gas, an environmentally clean fuel, for about 30 percent of its energy needs. Three-fourths of the 4 million tons of gas the Japanese company uses each year to generate electricity comes from Indonesia, he said.

"We need fuel, so until we get word that operations are resuming, we have to look elsewhere," he said.

The Japanese power company was increasing supply from Malaysia, Indonesia's neighbor to the north, by at least 60,000 tons above the usual 500,000 tons purchased annually. Yamagata was unable to comment on which Malaysian company was the supplier.

Rebels from the Free Aceh Movement have been fighting for an independent homeland since the mid 1970s. There has been an escalation in violence recently despite a nine-month-old cease- fire. At least 6,000 people have been killed in the past decade.