BPMigas: First Tangguh LNG exports to be on schedule

Nov. 18, 2008
Indonesian officials, quickly reversing earlier statements, said the first LNG exports from the BP PLC-led Tangguh project will be shipped in February 2009 as scheduled.

Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 -- Indonesian officials, quickly reversing earlier statements, said the first LNG exports from the BP PLC-led Tangguh project will be shipped in February 2009 as scheduled.

Raden Priyono, head of the upstream oil and gas regulatory body BPMigas, said the project is being completed on schedule and denied earlier reports that the shipment would be delayed from first-quarter 2009.

Earlier this week, a BPMigas official said the $5 billion Tangguh LNG project would be delayed until second-quarter 2009.

"It will come on stream in the second quarter of next year," BPMigas deputy chief Djoko Harsono told reporters on the sidelines of the Gasex conference, without giving a reason for the delay.

Earlier reports indicated that Indonesia would not delay shipments of Tangguh LNG to CNOOC's Fujian terminal in China, despite an ongoing price renegotiation with Beijing. The shipments are scheduled to begin in first-quarter 2009.

"We must respect the contract," said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro. "We are continuing negotiations, but as the negotiation has yet to reach an agreement, we must follow the contract," he said (OGJ Online, Oct. 30, 2008).

Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].