Taiwan to renew LNG contract

Taiwan to renew LNG contract

TAIPEI (Reuter): Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) said it will renew a 20-year contract to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Indonesia.

Under the renewal, which will begin in 1998, CPC will buy 1.84 million tons a year of LNG from a state-run Indonesian oil firm, CPC said in a statement.

The contract renewal will be signed today on the Indonesian island of Bali, CPC added.

CPC began importing 1.5 million tons of LNG per year from Indonesia in 1990. It has imported about 10 million tons of LNG as of this month, CPC said.

CPC said half of its LNG imports from Indonesia are used by the state-run Taiwan Power Company for generating power. The other half is consumed by private households and CPC itself, it said.

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

Indonesia and Malaysia currently are Taiwan's only LNG suppliers.

Indonesia which started exporting LNG in 1977 is now the world's largest exporter of the clean burning energy with annual shipments totaling more than 20 million tons.

Japan is Indonesia's largest buyer, followed by South Korea and Taiwan.