Pertamina may delay selling Sulawesi's gas

Pertamina may delay selling Sulawesi's gas

Bloomberg, Jakarta

Pertamina, Indonesia's state oil and natural gas company, said
it may delay marketing of gas from fields in Central Sulawesi to
Mexico and the U.S. after drilling showed less gas than
estimated.

The company found 3.14 trillion cubic feet of proven gas
reserves from three wells in Donggi, compared with 20 trillion to
22 trillion cubic feet of proven and potential gas reserves
estimated by Pertamina last year, President Director Baihaki Hakim
said.

"We have to find 9 trillion cubic feet reserves before we
can start marketing Donggi," Baihaki told reporters. "I still
believe it has at least 20 trillion cubic feet of reserves. We
will drill three more wells this year to find more."

The company earlier planned to certify the gas from Donggi in
March and start seeking buyers this year, Baihaki said. The lower-
than-estimated discoveries forced the company to delay the
certification, it said.

Donggi is adjacent to the Senoro-Toili field that Pertamina
is exploring with PT Medco Energi Internasional, its partner in a
planned development of the country's fourth liquefied natural gas
plant. Pertamina plans to liquefy the gas at a plant in Sulawesi
and ship it to the U.S. West Coast and Mexico.

Marathon Oil Corp., the No. 4 U.S. oil company, would build a
$900 million receiving terminal in Baja California, Mexico, to
turn the liquid fuel back into gas.

The Sulawesi LNG plant would have two LNG trains, or
production lines, able to produce 6 million tons a year.