"We believe Indonesia will be able to defend its position as the top LNG exporter in the world, because we have advantages in marketing," he said. Indonesia is better located than Qatar or Australia, making it easier for its LNG to be transported to markets. "We will offer competitive prices in future," he said. "We also have abundant natural gas reserves."

He said Pertamina currently produces about more than 30 million tonnes of LNG annually from 13 plants. "By the end of this year the total capacity will increase to 33.7 million tonnes annually when the number eight LNGtrain will come on stream in Bontang, East Kalimantan," he said.

The eighth train--called Train H--in Bontang was still on schedule for commercial production in November this year. "All LNG production is exported under longterm and short-term contracts with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan," he said.

Pertamina's president director Martiono Hadianto said on last Tuesday Indonesian gas reserves were estimated at 136 trillion standard cubic feet and oil reserves were 9.7 billion barrels. Indonesian oil production capacity was 1.5 million barrels per day and gas production was 8.5 billion standard cubic feet. Domestic fuel requirement is estimated at around 311 million barrels in the 1999/00 fiscal year.