Sempra to import Indonesian LNG

Liquified Natural Gas coming into Sempra's proposed Baja California Liquified Natural Gas terminal would come from Indonesia:

Under the 20-year contract with BP and Tangguh LNG, a group of mostly Japanese energy firms, Sempra Energy LNG would receive 3.7 million tons of LNG per year, or 500 million cubic feet of natural gas a day.

The gas from fields beneath a remote jungle of West Papua, Indonesia, would be liquefied and shipped in tankers to a Sempra-Shell receiving terminal at the Costa Azul plateau north of Ensenada. There, it would be regasified and delivered by pipeline to natural gas customers in Baja California, California and Arizona.

Sempra Energy LNG expects to start building its Energía Costa Azul project in the first part of next year and receive its first shipments from Indonesia in 2008.

Of course, if natural gas prices in Japan are greater then those in California, it is easy to see a scenario where the Japanese consortium decided money comes before the California consumer. Actually, it would be easy to see a scenario where Sempra felt the same way, too!