Unocal to up supply to RI LNG plants

Unocal to up supply to RI LNG plants

SINGAPORE: Unocal Corp., a U.S. oil company being acquired by Chevron Corp., will quadruple its share of gas supply to the world's biggest liquefied natural gas plant to 30 percent when two Indonesian offshore fields begin production.

El Segundo, California-based Unocal expects to start production in late 2008 or early 2009 at its Gendalo project offshore East Kalimantan and in 2011 or 2012 at its Gehem project further north, Randolph Howard, senior vice president of Unocal's global gas unit, said in Singapore.

Unocal, Total SA and Vico Indonesia supply gas to the Bontang LNG plant in East Kalimantan. The Indonesian government wants the companies to boost output to ensure that the plant operated by state-owned PT Pertamina can meet export commitments. Unocal currently accounts for 7 percent of gas supplies to the LNG plant.

"Unocal's new gas supplies will replace the declining gas supplies from Vico," Howard said at the LNG Supplies for Asian Markets 2005 conference.

LNG is natural gas cooled to liquid form, reducing it to one- six hundredth of its original volume for transportation by tanker to destinations not connected by pipeline. On arrival the LNG is turned back into gas and distributed to customers such as power stations.-- Bloomberg