Taiwan to buy RI gas

Taiwan to buy RI gas

TAIPEI (Reuter): Taiwan's state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp said it was negotiating a contract with Indonesia to buy an additional 2.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas.

"CPC is negotiating a contract with Indonesia to buy an additional 2.5 million tons of LNG a year," CPC vice-president and spokesman Fang Yi-Shan told Reuters.

CPC renewed a 20-year LNG contract with Indonesia last October for 1.84 million tons a year from Indonesia's state-run oil firm.

In February 1995, CPC approved a 20-year contract to buy LNG from Malaysia.

With the additional Indonesian contract, CPC will import about 7.5 million tons of LNG per year, Fang said.

The gas will be piped from Kaohsiung to Hsinchu after CPC completes its planned undersea pipeline, Fang said.

"The planned undersea pipeline will pipe LNG from Indonesia and Malaysia to provide consumption for residents in the island's northern part and power generation plants," Fang said.

CPC said earlier it would build a T$30 billion undersea LNG pipeline between Kaohsiung and Hsinchu.