Gas discovered at RI’s first deep-water project

Upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas reported that Chevron Indonesia Company’s (Cico) deep-water project in the Makassar Strait was estimated to have total gas reserves of 2.3 trillion cubic feet with a production capacity of more than 1,000 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).

BPMigas spokesperson Gde Pradnyana said the plan of development (PoD) for the four blocks in the Makassar Strait (Ganal, Rapak, Makassar Strait and Muara Bakau) had been approved by the agency.

The four blocks have five gas fields, namely Bangka, Gehem, Gendalo, Maha and Gandang.

Cico will drill 28 undersea wells in the five fields. The production of the fields will be integrated into two floating production units (FPU) and a subsea tie-back (connection from a newly discovered field to an existing production facility).

The two units will be located in Gendalo field and will integrate Gendalo, Maha and Gendang fields, which have a depth of between 2,200 and 5,600 feet. The second unit will be at Gehem, which has a depth of 6,000 feet, while the Bangka field will be connected with a production unit at West Seno, which is also operated by Chevron.

The investment required to build the facilities is estimated to reach US$7 billion, comprising $2.2 billion for production facilities and $4.8 billion for drilling, BPMigas revealed.

Gde explained that the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the Bangka field was completed in December last year, while Gendalo and Gehem were expected to be finished in April this year.

BPMigas data show that the final investment decision (FID) for the Bangka field is projected to be reached in 2013, followed by Gendalo and Gehem a year later. Bangka will start producing gas in 2015, Gendalo in 2017 and Gehem in 2018.

The production capacity of the Bangka field is 140 mmscfd of gas, the Gendalo field 700 mmscfd of gas and 20,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and the Gehem field 420 mmscfd of gas and 27,000 bpd of oil.

“Gendalo will contribute the highest amount of gas,” Gde said.

Starting 2016, Chevron’s projects in the Makassar Strait will supply 0.5 million tons per annum of LNG to the Central Java floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) to be built by state-run oil and gas firm Pertamina that will kick off commercial operation in the first quarter of 2013.

LNG from the Makassar Strait’s gas is processed at the Bontang LNG plant in East Kalimantan. The Makassar Strait is the first deep-water project in Indonesia.

The government is currently trying to persuade oil and gas companies to explore the eastern part of the country.

Last year, the country’s gas production was 8,846 mmscfd, a bit lower than the 8,888 mmscfd produced in 2010.