Mitsui to handle Pertamina project

Mitsui to handle Pertamina project

TOKYO: Japan's Mitsui & Co. has signed a project financing deal worth US$200 million with Pertamina, an Indonesian state-run oil and gas company, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Sunday edition, citing sources familiar with the matter said.

Under the contract, five banks, including the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, will provide necessary funding for the Indonesian firm's new oil project. Mitsui will receive low-sulfur fuel oil from Pertamina and use its sales proceeds to repay the banks.

It is one of the largest loan deals handled by Japanese companies for Indonesia since a major currency crisis erupted in East Asia in 1997.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation will lend $120 million, while UFJ Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, France's Credit Lyonnais and ING of the Netherlands will provide $20 million each.

Pertamina will use the loan to fund a national project it will conduct in the western part of Java Island to produce unleaded gasoline.

Mitsui is to receive 20,000 to 31,000 barrels of low-sulfur fuel oil on a daily basis for just over three years for sale to thermal power plants in Japan, South Korea and elsewhere. -- Dow Jones