Energy World to build small LNG plant in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Jan 25 - Australian oil and gas firm Energy World Corp's <EWC.AX> Indonesian unit plans to build a small liquefied natural gas plant with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes a year, a company official said on Monday.

"We plan to build the LNG plant...to supply a planned domestic LNG receiving terminal in Indonesia," Thompson Situmorang, Energy World general counsel, told reporters.

"The plant is expected to be operational for 5 years," he said, adding this was subject to approval by BPMIGAS, which monitors oil and gas contractors working in Indonesia.

Energy Equity Epic Sengkang, the Energy World unit, operates a natural gas block in South Sulawesi province.

Situmorang said the LNG will be supplied to a receiving terminal planned by local gas distribution firm PT Perusahaan Gas Negara <PGAS.JK>.

PGN has said it will build a floating LNG receving terminal near Jakarta in a joint venture with state oil firm Pertamina with a capacity of around 1.5 million tonnes a year, and also plans to build its own floating receiving terminal in North Sumatra with capacity of about 1.5 million tonnes a year.

Indonesia has no LNG receiving terminal at the moment.

Indonesia, the world's third-largest LNG exporter behind Qatar and Malaysia, is seeking non-oil energy sources such as natural gas and coal to meet rising domestic demand for power and to reduce consumption of crude oil as its reserves dwindle.