TotalEnergies has signed a terminal use agreement with Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina to use two of its storage tanks from this year at the 3mn t/yr Arun LNG receiving and regasification terminal in Sumatra's Aceh province.
TotalEnergies will use the tanks to store LNG from its international portfolio, according to the agreement it signed with terminal operator Perta Arun Gas (PAG), which is a subsidiary of Pertamina Gas. The duration of the agreement is unclear.
The Arun terminal has four storage tanks with a total capacity of 508,000m³. TotalEnergies "will use two LNG tank units with a total capacity of 207,000m³", PAG's president director Arif Widodo said.
"Focusing on this deal, we plan to ship vessels from our LNG portfolio in Angola for storage at the Arun LNG hub before delivering cargoes to customers," TotalEnergies Gas and Power Asia's managing director Nic Poulteney said. TotalEnergies has a 13.6pc stake in Angola LNG.
The 160,276m³ Cubal vessel will supply the first shipment, Pertamina said. The vessel loaded at Angola's 5.2mn t/yr Soyo export facility on 8 August and is heading to the Arun terminal, where it is expected to discharge tomorrow, according to vessel tracking data from Vortexa.
PAG is also planning to refurbish an additional tank at the terminal and develop other businesses including its gassing up and cooling down services, LNG bunkering, as well as LPG hub and transshipment, Arif said.
The Arun terminal received its first international cargo in April 2019 from Australia's 8.9mn t/yr Chevron-operated Wheatstone LNG, with it having previously only received domestic LNG cargoes from the BP-led 7.6mn t/yr Tangguh for regasification. Arun was converted from a liquefaction plant to a regasification facility in 2013 because of Indonesia's rapidly depleting gas reserves.
The latest terminal use agreement reflects southeast Asian countries' increasing interest to develop as LNG hubs. The Thai government has been pushing for a hub to open up the country's gas market to more buyers and sellers, following its move to provide third-party access to gas infrastructure and offer services such as unloading, storage, reloading, break bulk and LNG bunkering.
Singapore LNG has also been offering storage and reload services at its terminal on Jurong island as part of its plan to develop Singapore as an LNG hub. It signed a five-year agreement with Singapore's Pavilion Energy last year.
Source: Argus