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.