BONTANG STILL OWES 80 GAS CARGOES TO JAPAN

Jakarta, Feb 5 (ANTARA) - The Bontang refinery plant in East Kalimantan still owes 80 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth US$2 billion to Japan, an oil official said.

Head of the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulating Body (BP Migas) R Priyono said here on Friday the 80 cargoes Bontang still owed to Japan constituted the accumulated volumes of LNG that had not yet been realized based on the export contract.

"If we do not fulfill the exportation of the 80 cargoes, we have to pay US$2 billion dollars to Japan," he said.

He said that the problem had been taken as a reason for extending the LNG export contract with Japan.

AT present, the Bontang refinery plant is supplying 12 million tons of LNG to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The contract of most of the LNG export is with Japan.

Actually, Bontang has signed an initial agreement to export 25 million tons of LNG to Japan for a period of ten years.

Of the 25 million tons, three million tons would be exported per annum in the first five year period and two million tons per annum in the second five year period.

The initial agreement is still awaiting approval from the minister for energy and mineral resources before it could be turned into a sale-purchase contract.