Eni SPA has presented to the Widodo government its natural gas expansion plans for Indonesia and at the same time signed an agreement with the energy ministry for energy transition cooperation, the Italian energy major said. During a recent meeting in Jakarta with President Joko Widodo, Eni chief executive Claudio Descalzi laid out the development plan for the Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) project offshore Borneo island, the company said in a news release. Eni took over the project last year from Chevron Corp. when it acquired the United States competitor’s operated stakes in three Indonesian blocks: Ganal PSC, Makassar Straits PSC and Rapak PSC. IDD is under the Ganal production sharing contract (PSC).
IDD includes the Gendalo and Gandang fields, which Eni estimates to hold about two trillion cubic feet of (tcf) natural gas reserves. The Ganal, Makassar Strait and Rapak blocks together produced a daily average of 33 million cubic feet of gas and 2,000 barrels of oil 2019 net to the operator, according to information on Chevron’s website. Eni has already been a partner in Ganal and Rapak before the acquisition, as a 20 percent interest holder, while Chevron held 62 percent.
Descalzi also discussed Eni’s development plan for the Geng North field, which is adjacent to IDD—both are in the Kutei basin offshore East Kalimantan province, on the Indonesian side of Borneo. Italian government-controlled Eni announced October a “significant gas discovery” at the Geng North-1 exploration well under the separate North Ganal PSC, reporting preliminary estimates of 5.0 tcf of gas and 400,000 barrels of condensate. Eni said it plans to build a Geng North production hub in the northern part of Kutei with a capacity of 1.0 billion cubic feet of gas per day (cfpd). The new hub and the planned expansion of existing facilities in the southern part of Kutei by 750 million cfpd “will allow Indonesia to increase its gas production significantly, both for domestic use and for export”, the press statement said.
“The new projects, along with the ongoing development of East Merakes and Maha fields, will drive a major positive impact on local content, and will increase the utilization of the available capacity at Bontang LNG plant, in addition to the gas required for the domestic consumption”, Eni added. Maha is a gas field under Eni’s operated West Ganal block while Merakes is another gas field in the East Sepinggan block, also operated by Eni—both blocks likewise sit in the Kutei basin. While aiming to grow gas output in the Southeast Asian country, Eni said it also has plans to offset plant-warming emissions from its operations in Indonesia. “During the meeting, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia and Eni signed a Memorandum of Understanding [MOU] to cooperate in the fields of energy transition and decarbonization”, the announcement said.
“The MoU will allow Eni to assess the potential production of agri-feedstock for Enilive biorefineries, mainly from agro-industrial and forestry residues”, Eni said referring to its sustainable mobility brand. “Eni will also analyze Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage and energy efficiency opportunities in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from upstream and hard-to-abate sectors. “Finally, Eni will evaluate nature- and technology-based projects, including clean cooking, to offset residual emissions”.
Source: rigzone.com