RI may delay LNG exports to Korea, Japan on tsunamis
RI may delay LNG exports to Korea, Japan on tsunamis
Dow Jones, Jakarta
PT Pertamina, Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company, said on Monday it may delay shipments of liquefied natural gas to Japan and South Korea if the loading process is hit by tidal waves again over the next two days.
"If the tsunami attacks again, we won't be able to load the LNG; we would have to declare a state of force majeur to our clients (in Japan and South Korea)," Pertamina Vice President Mustiko Saleh told reporters.
Rescue crews combed seaside villages in northwestern Indonesia Monday for survivors from a massive undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean Sunday that caused tidal waves that killed at least 4,448 people in Indonesia and left more than a million homeless, the Health Ministry said.
Mustiko said Indonesia will ask Japan and South Korea to accept the "force majeur" situation if Pertamina fails to make the shipment.
He said Pertamina is in the process of loading LNG into two ships - the Aquarius and Echiqo Maru. Each ship will carry 125,000 metric tons of LNG for South Korea and Japan. Pertamina had to delay its effort to load the LNG Monday, in the wake of the earthquake and resulting tsunami.
"If over the next two days we fail to load the LNG, then we will declare the situation," he reiterated.
He added that if the situation occurs, Pertamina will reschedule the shipments. He didn't elaborate
Elsewhere, the local subsidiary of U.S. petroleum giant Exxon Mobil Corp. suffered a temporary "minor disruption" in its natural gas liquefaction operations Sunday due to the massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean, off Indonesia's northwest province of Aceh, the company said on Monday.
"When the earthquake occurred on Sunday morning, there was a minor disruption of gas processing initially at PT Arun and Exxon Mobil Oil Indonesia Inc.," an Exxon Mobil Oil Indonesia Inc. statement said, quoting communications manager Deva Rachman.
"However, production was fully restored on Sunday afternoon (and) there was no damage to the EMOI-operated facilities."
The statement didn't specify the nature or the cost of lost production prompted by the earthquake-related operations halt.
PT Arun and EMOI are located outside the city of Lhokseumawe in Aceh province, which was shattered by a massive earthquake and tsunami early Sunday morning that has killed more than 4,000 of its residents and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
Despite the horrific toll in human suffering, analysts and government officials are breathing a sigh of relief that Indonesia has been spared the economic impact of serious earthquake-related damage to the liquid natural gas facilities in the quake-stricken province.
Indonesia, the only Asian member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is the world's largest LNG exporter and relies heavily on petroleum revenues to support its sputtering economy, which has seen growth falling behind that of its regional neighbors in recent years.
The new government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is counting on expanding foreign investment in the country's oil and gas sector as a means of jump-starting economic growth.
The statement said that Exxon Mobil's operations in Aceh are currently operating normally and that the firm will continue to monitor its facilities in the area.