T

o cater to the minerals industry, the government is seeking to develop the East Natuna block, which boasts the largest gas reserve in Asia.

With total proven reserves of 46 trillion cubic feet (tcf), the East Natuna block in the Natuna Islands, Riau Islands province. The East Natuna block holds five times more gas than the famous Masela block in Maluku province.

A consortium consisting of state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, US-based ExxonMobil and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production (PTT EP) is currently exploring the area. The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry hopes to speed up development.

If the massive reserves were tapped, IGN Wiratmaja Puja, Oil and Gas Director General at the ministry, said that a pipeline would be constructed from East Natuna to Batam and Kalimantan.  

“We can connect the pipeline to the one in West Natuna so that the gas can be delivered straight to Batam. If we can produce even more gas, we can construct a trans-Kalimantan pipeline to transport it to Kalimantan,” he said recently.

The delivery of gas to both islands is considered to be crucial in order to ensure the sustainability of industries, especially in Kalimantan where many smelters operate to process bauxite and other minerals.

The government has long called for the establishment of smelters to add value to finished products and to reduce the country’s reliance on imports.  According to the ministry. gas production is likely to begin in 2027 or 2028.

Several companies will begin to construct smelter grade alumina (SGA) plants in West Kalimantan, including state-run diversified miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) and bauxite mining company Cita Mineral Investindo.

 However, realization of the pipeline is not likely to be easy as development will require advanced technologies and huge investment to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the block.

 The block previously known as D-Alpha reports a high CO2 level of 72 percent, the highest exploitation field CO2 level in the world.

Wiratmaja declined to disclose the amount of investment required to develop the block, but earlier reports cite figures of between US$20 billion and $40 billion.

Natuna Islands is home to seven oil and gas exploitation fields and 10 exploration fields, with a total production of 48.21 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) and 25,447 barrels of oils per day (bopd).

Several exploitation fields in West Natuna have ceased production due to depleted reserves, highlighting the importance of the East Natuna block development.

Pertamina spokesperson Wianda Pusponegoro claimed that the consortium would expedite its studies in order to speed up development for production.

“We are doing our best to hasten our studies. Our target is to complete them by the end of 2017,” she told The Jakarta Post.

The East Natuna block development will once again propel the Natuna Islands to prominence.

Last month, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo held a limited Cabinet meeting on board a warship in the area in an effort to protect the government’s sovereignty over the Natuna Islands.

The Natuna Islands and its surrounding waters are located close to the so-called “nine-dash line”, a controversial demarcation line unilaterally declared by China as the basis of its claim over most of the resource-rich South China Sea.

While Indonesia is not a claimant in any territorial dispute in the South China Sea, the Indonesia’s 83,000-square-meter Natuna exclusive economic zone (EEZ) has been included within the area demarcated by China’s  nine-dash line.