BP will likely offer four spot cargoes of LNG from Tangguh this month, part of eight cargoes it had planned to offer through tender this year, the chairman of Indonesia's upstream regulator said Wednesday.
"We approved [the sale of] four cargoes previously. They have been shipped. The remaining four cargoes will likely to be offered this month. If domestic buyers are interested in buying the LNG they can join the tender," the chairman of Indonesia's upstream regulator BPMigas, R. Priyono, said on the sidelines of the Gasex conference in Bali.
BPMigas recently agreed to sell four cargoes to Malaysia's Petronas, Japan's Tepco, South Korea's Kogas and SK, an industry source close to the matter said separately.
A typical Tangguh LNG cargo is about 140,000 cubic meters.
BP could not immediately be reached for comment.
BPMigas is authorized to choose sellers and buyers for crude, natural gas and LNG to boost the government's revenues. The government receives typically 70% of gas production and 85% of crude production as part of its split for each production sharing contract.
BPMigas said earlier that BP and Sempra had reached a deal that allowed Indonesia to divert 54 out of the 60 cargoes originally committed to the US company. The deal is be valid for the rest of Sempra's contract, unless one of the parties needs to review the agreement.
Under the original contract with Sempra, Indonesia could divert up to half of the agreed 3.7 million mt/year of LNG to any other country in order to boost the country's revenue.
Tangguh also has long-term LNG supply contracts with China's CNOOC for 2.6 million mt/year for 25 years; South Korea's Posco for 550,000 mt/year for 20 years; K-Power for 600,000 mt/year for 20 years; and Tohoku Electric Power for 125,000 mt/year for 15 years.
The Tangguh project in Bintuni Bay of Indonesia's far eastern Papua province has two liquefaction trains to produce a total 7.6 million mt/year of LNG. Initial investment in the project was $5 billion.
It was initially based on 14.4 Tcf of proven gas reserves in three neighboring production sharing contracts, namely Berau, Muturi and Wiriagar.
As of May 2011, the blocks' proven and probable gas reserves were 18.7 Tcf, while its proven, probable and possible gas reserves were 23.3 Tcf.
BP is the operator in the project with a 37.16% interest.The other partners are CNOOC (13.90%), MI Berau BV (16.30%), Nippon Oil Exploration (12.23%), KG Companies (10%), LNG Japan (7.35%) and Talisman (3.06%).
Source: Platts