Korea to get LNG from Arun plant

Korea to get LNG from Arun plant

SEOUL (Dow Jones): One liquefied natural gas cargo will arrive in South Korea Tuesday from Indonesia's Arun gas field, the Ministry of commerce, Industry and Energy, or Mocie, said Monday.

The 56,000-metric-ton cargo is the first volume from Arun since production was halted in March, Mocie said in a statement.

ExxonMobil Indonesia Inc., a unit of Exxon Mobil Corp., resumed some of its natural gas operations in mid-July after a four-month shutdown due to security concerns in Aceh province. ExxonMobil Indonesia is the sole natural gas operator at Arun.

Mocie said this is the restart of normal LNG imports from Arun, securing stable LNG supply to South Korea during the coming high demand season.

Indonesia's state-run Pertamina asked South Korea to take two cargoes in August and four cargoes in September, but South Korea refused because it had made alternative LNG purchase arrangements until September, Mocie said.

South Korea plans to receive two cargoes in September and four or five cargoes in October, Mocie said.

Indonesia exports LNG from the Arun gas field to South Korea and Japan.

Indonesia is South Korea's largest LNG supplier. South Korea has a long-term contract with Indonesia to import 3 million tons of LNG from Arun and 2.3 million tons from Bontang in 2001.

This year, South Korea also plans to receives 11.02 million tons of LNG from its other contract suppliers - Malaysia, Qatar, Oman and Brunei.