South Korea secures two Bontang LNG shipments
South Korea secures two Bontang LNG shipments
SEOUL (Dow Jones): South Korea has secured two additional cargoes of liquefied natural gas from Indonesia's Bontang gas field to substitute volumes lost from a supply disruption at Arun gas field, an official at Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said Monday.
One 56,000-metric-ton cargo of LNG is scheduled to load from Bontang April 7 and arrive in Pyongtaek April 13. Another 56,000- ton cargo of LNG will load from Bontang April 16 and arrive in South Korea April 22, the ministry official said.
"We don't need to make any more additional supply arrangements (for April)," the ministry official said. "We have enough for April when the two cargoes arrive from Bontang."
South Korea has been in talks with several suppliers to supply substitute LNG volumes to compensate for the supply halt from the Arun gas field in Indonesia's Aceh province, which was shut down two weeks ago due to civil unrest.
The official said the energy ministry hasn't been informed of when ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia, a unit of U.S.-based Exxon Mobil Corp., will resume natural gas pumping in Arun. ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia is the sole natural gas supplier to PT Arun Gas and liquefies the natural gas before it is shipped to South Korea and Japan.
The energy ministry said last week that South Korea is also in talks with Japan's Kansai Electric Power Co., Japan's Osaka Gas Co. and an Australian supplier to acquire LNG volumes for April.
The energy ministry official said Monday there is no need to continue the talks as South Korea has met its April LNG needs after closing the deal for the two additional Bontang liftings.
South Korea currently isn't looking for substitute LNG volumes in May, the official added. He said the government will carefully monitor the ongoing supply disruption in Indonesia's Arun gas field and take necessary actions if needed.
The official also confirmed that a 56,000-ton LNG cargo arrived Saturday from Bontang gas field that had been originally allocated for Taiwan's state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp.. State- run Korea Gas Corp. will return the LNG volume to Taiwan April 13 to conclude the swap deal.
South Korea has reached an agreement with Brunei to move forward one 56,000-ton cargo to arrive in Pyongtaek April 20. Kogas is also scheduled to lift 56,000 tons of LNG from Malaysia's Petronas Gas Bhd., with delivery to Pyongtaek for April 8 to replace lost Indonesian volume.
Indonesia is South Korea's largest LNG supplier. South Korea is expected to import a total of 16.32 million tons of LNG in 2001, of which 5.3 million tons will come from Indonesia.