Try inaugurates Bontang gas line

Try inaugurates Bontang gas line

JAKARTA (JP): Vice President Try Sutrisno inaugurated here
yesterday Pertamina's seventh liquefied natural gas production
unit, the Train-G, in Bontang, East Kalimantan.

Try also inaugurated two other projects of the state-owned gas
and oil company: the Balikpapan I refinery in East Kalimantan and
the Kasim Sorong refinery in Irian Jaya.

All three projects were inaugurated by the Vice President at a
ceremony held in Jakarta.

Try noted in his speech the importance of energy use and
energy diversification due to the decrease in the country's oil
resources.

"We are currently a net exporter of oil. But we can become a
net importer of oil if we don't manage (our resources) properly
and with planning," Try said.

The new liquefied natural gas (LNG) unit would raise the
Bontang plant's output 2.6 million tons to 18.5 million tons a
year.

The other six LNG units have been designated trains A through
F.

The seventh train was built by Indonesian contractor PT Inti
Karya Persada Teknik which is also the developer of the Train-F.

Inti Karya president R. Muluk was quoted by Antara as saying
yesterday in Bontang that the construction of the Train-G took
US$507 million, $11 million cheaper than the construction of the
Train-F.

"The construction (of the Train-G) was cheaper because we used
more domestically made materials," Rasuli said.

The general manager of Pertamina's subsidiary PT Badak which
operates the Bontang LNG units, Suhardi, said the company could
make 125 shipments of LNG with each vessel carrying 118,000 cubic
meters of LNG, valued at Rp 32 billion ($8.2 million).

He said Badak's LNG accounted for Rp 2 trillion of the Rp 3.8
trillion in foreign exchange earned by the government in the
1996/1997 fiscal year from the gas sector.

Pertamina discovered natural gas in Bontang in 1972 and the
first shipment was made in 1977.

Pertamina operates six other LNG plants in Arun, Aceh.

The company plans to build an eighth LNG unit, Train-H, to
make the company the world's largest LNG producer with an output
of 21.64 tons a year by 2000.

The company has signed a syndicated loan of $1.13 billion with
the Bank of Taiwan, Chase Manhattan Corp., Banque Indosuez, Fuji
Bank and Mitsubishi Corp. to finance the construction of the
eighth LNG train.

Pertamina needs an eighth unit to meet the demands created by
its new 20-year LNG sales contracts with Taiwan's Chinese
Petroleum and South Korea's Korea Gas Corporation.

According to the contracts, Pertamina must sell 2.84 million
tons of LNG to Taiwan and one million tons of LNG to South Korea
annually starting in 2000.

The eighth production unit would be constructed by Inti Karya
and Bimantara scheduled for completion in November 1999. (jsk)