Tangguh development to begin
Tangguh development to begin
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Anglo-American oil and gas company BP Indonesia said on Thursday it would start developing infrastructure for the Tangguh liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua province in July.
BP Indonesia vice president for government relations and public affairs Satya W. Yudha said the company would begin the construction following completion of its environmental impact assessment (Amdal) this month.
"We will develop well production, pipelines and LNG plant starting from July and expect to complete the construction in 2005," he told a media gathering.
He said the company would spend millions of dollars in building that infrastructure, but he didn't provide details.
BP Indonesia, a subsidiary of Anglo-American energy giant BP, started its Amdal study in late 2000 and completed it earlier this month.
It has spent about US$600,000 in carrying out the assessment.
BP Indonesia would submit the Amdal to the government in two weeks and the latter was expected to decide whether or not to approve it in three-and-a-half months, Satya said.
BP is now competing with LNG producers from Australia and Qatar to win the contract to supply LNG to Guangdong province in China
The Guangdong LNG supply contract offers potential sales totaling 3 million tons of LNG annually, beginning in 2005.
Satya said BP would start construction works even if China had not yet announced the results of the LNG contract tender.
Up to now, the Tangguh project has secured a contract of 1.3 million tons of LNG per year from Philippines energy firm GNPower.
BP Indonesia has repeatedly said the Tangguh plant would build two LNG trains worth $1.5 billion. Both trains would have an annual production capacity of 6 million tons of LNG.
The Tangguh plant will be supplied with gas from the Muturi, Wiriagar and Berau blocks in Irian Jaya, which contain proven reserves of 14.4 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The Tangguh project will be jointly developed by BP and state oil and gas company Pertamina.