The Development of Merakes Gas Field in Wilayah Kerja (WK) East Sepinggan is confirmed to produce its very first natural gas output on Wednesday (28/04/2021). Great efforts has been made in order to complete this project when the COVID-19 pandemic starts in the early 2020. This project is managed by SKK Migas that is contracted and in cooperation with Eni East Sepinggan Ltd. that succeed in its smooth development of Marakes Gas Field. This project is budgeted to be around 1,3 Billion USD that is located in Makassar Straight it is predicted that the national gas intake of Indonesia will increase to the amount of 368 million MMSCFD on its highest production rate.
“This project is targeted to operate (onstream) on its earliest the 3rd quarter of 2020, however there is a slight shift to the Plan Of Development (POD) that resulted in the operation (onstream) halted and started on the 1st quarter of 2021, still we are grateful that the project can be realized as with a smooth onstream process” said the Head of SKK Migas Dwi Soetjipto.
It’s important to note that Merakes Gas Field would be able to collaborate with Eni to increase the economic synergy of Merakes Gas Field and the Floating Production Unit (FPU) located in Jangkrik. It’s location result as a positive impact as they could initiate Facility Sharing Agreement (FSA) that could make both Jangkrik FPU and Merakes Gas Field more efficient and effective. The process is that the gas will be gathered from the Merakes Gas Field to the manifold located under the sea and streamed it to FPU Jangkrik, which is located 45 KM from manifold Merakas. The FPU in Jangkrik then will process the gas the gas and ship it to an Onshore Receiving Facility (ORF) at Senipah with export pipeline available for Jangkrik area. The Merakas Gas Field is a deep-sea project that is located 1500 meter deep below sea level. It produces gas from 5 gas well with each well capable to produce about 450 MMSCFD in its maximum capacity: comparable 85000 barrels of oil per day (BOEPD).
The existence of this new Merakas Gas Field will increase the supply of gas in East Kalimantan, focused on supply its local/domestic consumers that includes the fertilizer industry, electrical needs of East Kalimantan, and through the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) process on the Bontang refinery for commerce purposes.
Dwi has high hopes for this project as it could act as a multiplier for the national economy. The completion also acts as how skilled the national upstream oil and gas sector, managing to complete many deep-sea projects that is famous for being risky because of its sophistication by nature.
Wilayah Kerja (WK) East Sepinggan is operated by Eni East Sepinggan Limited with rights to participate in 65% (Percent) of operation. The rest is in collaboration with PT Pertamina Hulu Energi East Sepinggan with 15% of operation and Neptune Energi East Sepinggan for 20% of operation. It is designed that the development of Merakas Gas Field is to have an estimated 20 years’ worth of natural gas.
Comments