Tangguh LNG plant to get financing

Tangguh LNG plant to get financing

JAKARTA: A consortium led by BP PLC will receive a US$3.5
billion 10-year loan in October or November to help finance the
construction of a natural gas liquefaction plant in Papua, a
government official said.

A consortium of Chinese banks led by state-owned Bank of China
will provide $1.2 billion and a consortium consisting of the
Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) will provide the remaining $2.3 billion,
Kardaya Warnika, chairman of the Oil and Gas Upstream Regulatory
Body (BP Migas), said on late Wednesday.

Kardaya did not provide the interest rate to be charged on the
loan.

The consortium is pushing ahead with the $6 billion project to
build the Tangguh LNG plant comprising two production trains. The
plant is expected to have a capacity of 7.6 million metric tons a
year, with commercial production set to begin in late 2008.

It is unclear how BP and its partners will raise the other
$2.5 billion.

BP and its partners have agreed to supply 2.6 million tons of
LNG a year from the Tangguh plant to China, 1.35 million tons a
year to South Korea and 3.7 million tons a year to Mexico. -- Dow
Jones