South Korea’s Kodeco Energy shut down one of its oil and gas production facilities in the Java Sea after it was hit by a container ship last week
outh Korea’s Kodeco Energy shut down one of its oil and gas production facilities in the Java Sea after it was hit by a container ship last week.
The incident occurred on Wednesday at 6:53 p.m. local time, upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas said in a statement received Saturday.
Following the collision, the facility, called KE40, tilted to the southwest around 40 degrees, the statement read.
Several parts of the facility were damaged, including the dock and hand rails.
BPMigas public relations chief Elan Biantoro said the KE40 facility, which has seven wells, was shut down immediately after the incident. This will cause an estimated loss of 1,600 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and 15 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd).
BPMigas estimates repairs to the facility will take several weeks. An initial assessment is currently being carried out to ascertain the stability of the facilituy.
“Once the assessment is complete, we can further analyze how long the repairs will take and whether the facility can operate again,” Elan said.
BPMigas operation deputy Budi Indianto said the current situation at the facility was safe.
“[There were] no injuries, no oil spills, and no fires,” he said.
Budi added that BPMigas and Kodeco were continually monitoring the facility to anticipate the unexpected.
Kodeco has mobilized its inspection ship, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), to the KE40. The ship will check the undersea structure of the facility to check for physical damage.
Kodeco and BPMigas have also readied oil spill equipment, including an oil containment boom, in the area.
BPMigas said safety equipment from several oil and gas-related companies, including HESS, Santos, Pertamina and PetroChina, had also been prepared in the area.
Kodeco is the operator of the West Madura Production Sharing Contract (PSC) in Indonesia, while its sister company, Korea Development Co., Ltd is the operator of the Poleng block, which is located next to the West Madura PSC area.
Currently Kodeco operates 14 production facilities including KE5, KE6, KE23, KE30, KE32, KE38, KE40, KE56, Poleng AW, BW, CW, DW, Poleng Processing Platform, and the Central Processing Platform (CPP).
The facilities’ total production is 205 mmscfd and 30,000 bpd and condensate. Kodeco supplies it gas to state power firm PT PLN, state gas distributor PT Gas Negara, and petrochemical company Petro Kimia Gresik (PKG).
As for the oil, Kodeco supplies crude to the Madura Jaya offshore floating storage. This oil is used bv state oil and gas company PT Pertamina’s refineries in Balikpapan and Cilacap.
In 2009, Indonesia was hit by an environmental disaster after the Montara Well Head Platform in the Timor Sea, Australia, exploded, causing a spill estimated at around 400 bpd.
The facility was operated by PTT EP Australasia, a Bangkok-based oil and gas company operating in Australia and Asia. The spill entered Indonesian waters on Aug. 30, 2009.
As of Oct. 3, 2009, the oil spill covered 16,420 square kilometers of Indonesian waters. However, it took, the company until Nov. 3 to stop the spill.
The government has not mentioned the losses caused by the incident, saying only the long-term impact of the oil spill is being studied. However, the short-term impact of the spill, such as damage to marine ecosystems and losses suffered by fishermen and seaweed farmers in the area was estimated at around Rp 247 billion.
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