LNG

JERA Co. Inc, Japan’s biggest liquefied natural gas importer and utility company, has signed an accord with a unit of Indonesia’s state-owned power supplier PT PLN (Persero) to cooperate on LNG supplies for Indonesian domestic use.

Chiyoda Corp., the leading Japanese energy and LNG engineering company, has been awarded a technical service agreement (TSA) by the Indonesian Donggi-Senoro LNG project, the all-Asian venture whose largest shareholder is Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp.

“The agreement covers engineering, technology, and process safety support for the LNG plant and is scheduled to be carried out for three years,” said Chiyoda.

The LNG plant produces around 2 million tonnes per annum of LNG and has long-term contracts with Japanese and South Korean buyers.

Chiyoda said its Operations & Maintenance (O&M) division established at the start of 2023 would take the lead in providing the services.

The contract will also make use of Chiyoda’s consulting and engineering capabilities as a part of the plant-OSTM Services.

Service-focused

Chiyoda noted that this service was set up in September 2023 to offer field-centred physical maintenance support for industrial plants with “inherent digital technologies affording to the customer deep insight” into the plant status.

Production at Donggi-Senoro LNG commenced in August 2015 and the plant has been operating at a high rate since its start-up.

The facilities liquefy and export feed gas from the Senoro-Toili block and the Matindok block onshore gas fields in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province.

Mitsubishi owns around 45 percent of the Donggi-Senoro joint venture and the other partners are Korea Gas Corp., the Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina and Indonesia’s largest publicly-listed energy company Medco.

When Donggi-Senoro started it was the first LNG project exclusively owned and operated by Asian companies without the participation of international oil majors.

However, Mitsubishi is now one of Japan’s leading LNG stakeholders with assets and supplies from North America, including LNG Canada, Malaysia, Brunei, Australia and Russia.

The Donggi-Senoro customers are Japanese utility giant JERA Co. Inc., which takes delivery of 1 MTPA, Kogas with 700,000 tonnes per annum and Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power contracted for 300,000 tonnes per annum.

Indonesia’s energy regulator said Royal Dutch Shell was considering selling its 35 percent stake in the offshore Abadi natural gas field in the Masela block that will underpin an onshore LNG export joint venture proposed for Yamdena Island with Inpex Corp of Japan.

National oil companies in Asian states are looking for ways to alleviate the severe financial crises brought on by the price crash and the Covid-19 pandemic and the Indonesian energy company Pertamina is planning an overhaul and spin-offs for more subsidiaries.