Minggu, 10 Agustus 2008

Pertamina favored to buy Indonesia`s Tuban Petro

Jakarta (IOGNews) - Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina is favored to buy Tuban Petrochemical Industries (Tuban Petro) from state-owned asset management company PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (PPA).

Tuban Petro has a 59.5 per cent stake in Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI), which produces upstream petrochemical materials like aromatics with an annual capacity of 3.6 million tons. Pertamina will pay Rp3.2 trillion (USD 352 million) for the assets which will be used by the government to help bridge a deficit in the 2008 state budget.(Antara)

Jumat, 25 Juli 2008

Kogas to pay highest price for RI gas

Jakarta(IOGNews) - Korea Gas Corp (Kogas) has agreed to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Tangguh project at the record price of US per million British thermal units (mmbtu).

"We haven't signed a legal document yet, but we have agreed on the price," said BPMigas' deputy of operations, Eddy Purwanto Wednesday, adding that this price was the highest on any existing gas field, including Arun and Bontang.

The price, however, is based on the Japan Crude Cocktail (JCC) oil price of USD 120 per barrel, Eddy said.

Eddy refused to specify the volume of LNG that KOGAS would buy from Tangguh, saying this was still being negotiated. Kogas would start buying the LNG from 2010 to 2012, he said.

Tangguh is a massive project, exploiting gas fields in the mountainous Bintuni Bay area in Papua, with total proven gas reserves of 14.4 trillion cubic feet.

Buyers of Tangguh's LNG include the United States company Sempra Energy LNG Corp, China's Fujian Province and South Korea's steel maker POSCO, as well as power firm K. Power.

Eddy said that the LNG that Kogas was to purchase was originally intended for Sempra Energy LNG Corp. In 2004, multinational energy giant BP, the Tangguh project operator, signed a sales agreement with Sempra to supply up to 3.7 million tons per year of LNG.

Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said in May 2007 that under the Sempra contract, BP may divert up to 50 percent of LNG designated to Sempra to other markets.

Eddy said this diversion was part of government and BP efforts to get better LNG prices and to increase the total value of the Tangguh project.

Unlike Asian LNG buyers, Sempra is not an end user but a trader. The Tangguh LNG price for Sempra is based on the US gas market price at the time when the gas is shipped.

Fathor Rahman, BPMigas Head of Oil and Gas Market Development, said that although the LNG price for KOGAS could fall, due to fluctuations in the JCC, it was unlikely to fall lower than the price for Sempra.

"Only in special cases, like the aftermath of the Katrina storm, might the LNG price for Sempra get higher than that for Kogas," Fathor said.

He added that if this extraordinary situation occurred, Kogas had agreed to pay higher, following the United States price-lead.

Eddy said the Sempra diversion would increase the average LNG price from the Tangguh Project to USD 8.21 per mmbtu, up from USD 5.76 per mmbtu before the diversion, assuming the JCC price at USD 120 per barrel. This diversion would potentially increase the contract value of the Tangguh project by USD 19.7 billion, he said.

The government has been heavily criticized by analysts for selling Tangguh's LNG at very low prices. In 2002, the LNG price was based on a ceiling oil price of USD 25 per barrel. According to energy analyst Kurtubi, with this ceiling price, the price of Tangguh's LNG would be only USD 2.67 per mmbtu.

Later on in 2006, the government and buyers increased the ceiling oil price to US per barrel. Kurtubi said that with this new ceiling oil price, the Tangguh's LNG would be worth only USD 3.345 per mmbtu, lower than Badak and Arun's LNG with prices of between USD 5.7 per mmbtu and USD 6.08 mmbtu.

Kurtubi urged the government to renegotiate the Tangguh's LNG price. He said that the LNG price was supposed to be based on international crude oil prices without ceilings or limitations.

Eddy said that the lower LNG price happened because it was a buyers market when the commitment was made. "The price was the best that we could get. At that time no one, including the analyst, predicted the crude price would skyrocket," Eddy said.

Currently, the government is renegotiating the LNG price with China and Korea. "If we cannot manage to complete this by the end of this year, we will probably postpone the Tangguh's LNG shipments," he said.(JP)