Pertamina says Aceh LNG shipment to Japan on schedule

State oil and gas company Pertamina denied on Sunday rumors that it might not be able to ship first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Arun to Japan as scheduled due to tanker unavailability.

?The LNG tanker, Wakaba Maru, will arrive in Arun port on August 15 this month and the lifting is planned to take place on August 18,? Pertamina spokesman Sidick A. Nitikusuma told Petromindo.com.

He said the buyer for the cargo was Tepco.

Earlier, several local media reported that first LNG shipment from Arun might be delayed because ExxonMobil had yet confirmed the availability of the LNG tanker which was scheduled to lift one cargo of LNG to Japan on August 18.

One cargo contains 57,000 tons of LNG

Sidick also said that currently gas output from ExxonMobil?s gas fields in Aceh stood at approximately 750 million standard cubic feet per day (MMCFD, approximately 50 percent from its normal output of 1.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) per day.(alex)