TotalFinaElf to invest $900m

TotalFinaElf to invest $900m

Dow Jones, Singapore

TotalFinaElf is allocating US$900 million in its 2002 budget
for gas development offshore East Kalimantan, the largest annual
budget the French company has ever allocated to its Indonesian
operations.

Ananda Idris, corporate communications manager at TotalFinaElf
E&P Indonesie, said the $900-million budget also reflects one of
the largest amounts ever allocated to a TotalFinaElf affiliate.

The budget will be spent on constructing new production and
processing facilities at Peciko and Tunu gas fields off the East
Kalimantan coast, Idris said.

Peciko and Tunu fields produce on average 2.2 billion cubic
feet of natural gas a day, he said. The gas from these fields is
processed at PT Badak NGL, a joint-venture natural gas
liquefaction plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan.

PT Badak NGL, the operator of state-owned Pertamina's LNG
plant in Bontang, is a joint venture between Pertamina, which has
a 55 percent stake, Vico at 20 percent, Japan-Indonesia LNG
Company, or Jilco, at 15 percent and TotalFinaElf E&P Indonesie
at 10 percent.

The gas from TotalFinaElf's fields makes up around 60 percent
of the feedstock processed at Bontang LNG plant, and that
percentage is expected to rise next year, another company
official said. "The percentage is a function of certified
reserves, assessed by an external party," and is subject to
change, he stressed.

Idris said TotalFinaElf had contributed 70 percent of recent
LNG sales committed from Bontang.

Tunu and Peciko fields produce 95 percent of an average 2.3
billion cubic feet of gas daily from TotalFinaElf five producing
fields. TotalFinaElf's cumulative gas production off East
Kalimantan from January to August stood at 567 billion cubic feet
of gas.

PT Badak's production capacity stands at 22 million tons of
LNG a year, and plans are underway to expand this by 3 million
tons.

Pertamina is ready to invite pre-qualified parties to
participate in an engineering, procurement and construction, or
EPC, tender to build a ninth processing train, the TotalFinaElf
official said. It would take 36 months from the issue of the EPC
tender to the completion of the expansion at Bontang, he added.