LNG exporter Indonesia has asked its buyers to accept delays to Indonesian LNG cargo exports this year, as the Southeast Asian country looks to meet rising domestic energy and gas demand, sources familiar with the plans told Bloomberg on Thursday.

Indonesia, the sixth biggest exporter of LNG in the world, is estimated to have shipped about 300 cargoes in 2024, per vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Indonesia has a new energy plan under which it will prioritize gas exploration and production to meet domestic demand. Over the next decade, Indonesia expects natural gas demand for electricity to jump, Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said earlier this week.

“The orientation is to supply domestic demand. If that is not met, we will not permit exports,” Lahadalia was quoted as saying.

In addition, part of the BP-operated Tangguh LNG project in Indonesia was forced offline for days by an outage at the end of November.

A trip at the third train at BP’s facility in West Papua occurred earlier this week, Hudi Suryodipuro, a spokesperson for Indonesian regulator SKK Migas, said at the time.

Reduced LNG shipments from Indonesia this year could tighten the market.

With Europe going through its natural gas storage faster than in the previous seven years, it will need more LNG supply for the rest of the winter and during the summer, when it has to refill storage sites ahead of the 2025/2026 winter.

In recent weeks, LNG traders have diverted U.S. cargoes en route to Asia toward Europe, where gas prices are higher and demand is greater with winter weather and the halt of Russian pipeline gas supply via Ukraine.

At least seven U.S. LNG cargoes that were en route to Asia via the Cape of Good Hope have made abrupt U-turns in the South Atlantic this month and are now headed to European receiving terminals, according to data from commodities analysts ICIS quoted by the Financial Times.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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