US drops Congress watch on Papua

A United States’ congressman’s participation in removing US oversight of alleged human rights abuses in West Papua has disappointed an activist for the Indonesian province.

FIRST LNG SHIPMENT FROM INDONESIA’S TANGGUH FIELD IN JULY

Indonesia will conduct delivery of liquefied natural gas from its Tangguh field in Papua, to its buyers in Fujian, China, or South Korea in July.

“The first shipment of LNG from Tangguh will not automatically go to Fujian in China. This is because the receiving terminal in Fujian is not ready yet. Consequently, the first shipment will be diverted to another destination and this could be South Korea,” Energy and Mineral Resources minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Friday.

He was inspecting the Tangguh refinery and preparations for the first LNG shipment over the weekend.

Regarding the price of LNG for Fujian, the minister said that there had been a significant improvement.

“The previous price for Fujian and Posko, South Korea, was considered too low. Later we renegotiated it and the Fujian buyer finally agreed to raise it,” he said.

During the talks the Fujian side had also agreed to review the price once every four years.

“Now the Korean side has also agreed to follow Fujian`s example. They have already sent a comfort letter to us,” he said.

The price of LNG for CNOOC for delivery to Fujian initially was set based upon the oil ceiling price of US$25 per barrel. After renegotiations the price was then raised to the oil ceiling price of US$38 per barrel.

The LNG refinery in Tangguh, West Papua, is managed by BP Migas. Its production capacity reaches 7.6 million tons a year (MTPA) while its reserves totals 14 trillion cubic feet.

Contracts for the LNG sale have been signed with buyers from various countries such as Sempra Energy Marketing Co., for shipment to Costa Azul, Mexico, totalling 3.7 MTPA. The price for Sempra was agreed based on the price at Southern California Index Price (Socal).

The shipment to Fujian for CNOOC reaches 2.6 MTPA while to South Korea for SK Corp. and Posco reaches 1.1 MTPA respectively.

Another 120,000 tons a year will go to Tohoku Electrics, Japan

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