Tag: Mahakam block

oil terminals in Indonesia

Eight Largest Oil Lifting Terminals in Indonesia

oil storage tanks
Oil Storage Tanks

In 2019, the average daily crude oil production in Indonesia was 746,000 barrels.

Here are the eight largest crude oil lifting terminals in Indonesia in 2019 according to SKK Migas of Indonesia.

  1. WIDURI MARINE TERMINAL

Widuri Marine Terminal is operated by Pertamina Hulu Energi OSES which operates the oil fields located in the Offshore South East Sumatera contract area.

The South East Sumatera contract area was initially awarded to IIAPCO in 1968. Many big oil fields were discovered in this block such as Banuwati, Cinta, Intan, Widuri and Zelda.

Crude oil produced from these fields were stored in the Lentera Bangsa FSO – a floating, storage, and offloading vessel – and then offloaded into oil tankers.

The operatorship of this contract area changed hands many times during its 50 years of operation. Previous operators include IIAPCO, Maxus, Repsol, and CNOOC.

The average daily crude oil lifting volume of the Widuri Marine Terminal was 8501 BOPD.

  1. SENORO MARINE TERMINAL

Senoro Marine Terminal is operated by JOB Pertamina  Medco Tomori Sulawesi which is a joint operating body consisting of Pertamina Hulu Energi, Medco E&P and Tomori E&P.

JOB Pertamina Medco Tomori Sulawesi operating in the Tomori-Toili Block located in Central Sulawesi produces gas and condensate from the Senoro gas field and crude oil from the Tiaka oil field.

The gas from the Senoro field is processed into LNG by the Donggi-Senoro LNG plant which started operation in August 2015.

The average daily lifting volume at Senoro Marine Terminal was 14,857 BOPD

  1. TUBAN MARINE TERMINAL

Tuban Marine Terminal located in East Java is operated by PT Pertamina EP. The terminal handles the lifting of crude oil that Pertamina EP produces from the Tuban block. Before 29 February 2018, the Tuban block was operated under Joint Operating Body (JOB) Pertamina Petrochina East Java.

PT Pertamina EP, established on 17 September 2005, came under the supervision of BPMIGAS on 17 September 2005. BPMIGAS became SKK Migas on 13 November 2012.

On average, 16358 BOPD was lifted at the Tuban Marine Terminal.

  1. ARDJUNA TERMINAL

The Ardjuna oil terminal is operated by Pertamina Hulu Energi ONWJ which operates the oil and gas fields located in the Offshore North West Java work area.

The huge Ardjuna oil field was initially discovered by ARCO after it signed the PSC contract in 1971. ARCO later became BP West Java.  Pertamina Hulu Energi ONWJ became the operator of the Ardjuna field in July 2009.

The average crude oil lifting volume from the Ardjuna terminal was 25626 BOPD.

  1. SENIPAH MARINE TERMINAL

Senipah Marine terminal is operated by Pertamina Hulu Mahakam. The terminal was previously operated by Total Indonesie who discovered several big oil and gas fields – Bekapai, Handil, Tunu, Peciko, Sisi, Tunu –  in the Offshore Mahakam block.

On average, 31539 BOPD was lifted at The Senipah Marine terminal.

  1. RU PP7

The RU PP7 terminal is located in the Riau province in Sumatera and operated by Chevron Pacific Indonesia.

The average daily lifting volume at RU PP7 Terminal was 62,337 BOPD.

  1. DUMAI TERMINAL

The Dumai terminal is located in the Riau province in Sumatera and operated by Chevron Pacific Indonesia who holds the operatorship of the prolific Rokan PSC which will soon expire in 2021.

Chevron Pacific Indonesia, also known as CPI, discovered two super-giant oilfields: the Duri field in 1941 and Minas in 1944. Subsequently, CPI continued to discover many smaller oil fields in the Rokan work area.

Due to its low gravity oil, the Duri field underwent steam flooding in 1985 to enhance the recovery of its heavy oil. The Duri field steam flood project is one of the largest in the world.

The average daily lifting volume at the Dumai Terminal was 116,555 BOPD.

  1. BANYU URIP MARINE TERMINAL

At an average daily crude oil lifting volume of 200, 937 barrels, the Banyu Urip Marine Terminal is currently the top crude oil lifting terminal in Indonesia. It handles the lifting of the crude oil produced by Mobil Cepu from the onshore Banyu Urip field located in the Cepu Block contract area.

After the crude is processed in the central processing facilities (CPF) located at the center of the oil field, the oil is transported through a 72 KM long pipeline to the coast of Tuban, and then through a 23 KM long subsea pipeline to the FSO (Floating, Storage and Offloading) vessel. The FSO is named FSO Gagak Rimang.

The crude oil from the Banyu Urip field is lifted by oil tankers from FSO Gagak Rimang for transport to domestic and international refineries. The FSO has storage capacity for 2 million barrels of crude oil.

This article is written by Jamin Djuang based on the information published by SKK Migas. He is the founder of LDI Training which provides oil and gas training and the published author of The Story of Oil and Gas.

 

Indonesia, Pertamina

Balikpapan – The Most Interesting Oil Town of Indonesia

City of Balikpapan - Photo by Uut Minhudan
The city of Balikpapan – Photo courtesy of Uut Minhudan

Balikpapan, located in East Kalimantan, is the most well known and interesting oil town in Indonesia, and possibly in the world. It is at the center of oil and gas exploration and production activities that have been taking place in East Kalimantan since 1897 when the first oil well was drilled in Balikpapan. It is also the battleground of two fierce battles during World War II. It is set to become even more well known with the announcement of the relocation of the capital city of Indonesia from Jakarta to East Kalimantan.

Here are the interesting facts about Balikpapan.

The First Oil Discovery At Balikpapan

Oil was discovered in Balikpapan in 1897 when Jacobus Hubertus Menten, a Dutch mining engineer observed oil seepages in the area. With the help from Sir Marcus Samuel from Shell Transport and Trading Ltd, they drilled the famous Well Mathilda B-1 on 10 February 1897. The well was drilled to 222 Meter and it flowed initially at 184 barrels per day. This oil discovery in Balikpapan took place 38 years after Sir Edwin Drake drilled the world’s first oil well in America.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is chaz-tumbelaka-152119837_1368013350245091_4938877460877457398_o-1-3.jpg

This picture shows the Mathilda B-1, the first well drilled in Balikpapan. The picture was taken by Chaz Tumbelaka.

With the discovery, Jacobus Hubertus Menten and Sir Marcus Samuel formed Nederlandsch Indisch Industrie en Handel Maatschappij (NIIHM), and it continued to discover other oil fields away from Balikpapan. 10 February 1897 is considered the birth date of Balikpapan.

The Balikpapan Refinery

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To process the crude oil from the surrounding area and to meet the needs for fuel, the oil refinery of Balikpapan was completed in 1922 by BPM (Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij) which was a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. The Balikpapan refinery was damaged in 1942 when the Japanese army invaded Balikpapan. The refinery was controlled by the Japanese army in 1942-1945. BPM regained control of the refinery after the Allied forces ended the Japanese occupation of Balikpapan in 1945.

Several years later, Pertamina gained control of the refinery in 1949. The refinery has been expanded and upgraded several times to meet the increasing demand for fuel in the eastern part of Indonesia.

As one of the largest refineries in Indonesia, it is set to become even bigger. It is currently undergoing a large 4-billion-dollar expansion which will increase its processing capacity from 260,000 barrels per day to 360,000 barrels per day when it is completed in 2021. The refinery will have the capability to produce high-quality Euro V standard fuels.

The Discovery of Giant Oil and Gas Fields

Balikpapan experienced its biggest boom when several large international oil companies came to town after the production sharing contract scheme was introduced by Indonesia in 1966.

Balikpapan was the base of Union Oil of California (Unocal), Total and Roy M. Huffington Incorporated (Huffco) during their exploration and production operations in East Kalimantan where they discovered several giant oil and gas fields.

Pertamina has a huge presence in Balikpapan since 1949 when it took over the oilfields and the refinery which were previously operated by BPM (Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell.

Operated from Balikpapan, Unocal in partnership with Japex discovered the giant offshore oil field of Attaka in 1970. It also discovered the offshore Sepinggan field and the Yakin field both of which are clearly visible from the hills at Balikpapan. In 1996, Unocal discovered and developed the West Seno field which is the first deepwater oil field in Indonesia.

Total with its partner, Inpex, acquired the Mahakam Block in 1966. They discovered several giant offshore oil and gas fields: Handil, Peciko, Tambora, Bekapai, South Mahakam, Sisi-Nubi, and Tunu.

Huffco discovered the giant onshore Badak gas field in 1970 in East Kalimantan. The discovery of the giant Badak gas field had a huge influence on the course of oil and gas development in East Kalimantan. It prompted Huffco and Pertamina of Indonesia to build an LNG plant making it possible to export the gas.

Besides the Badak field, Huffco subsequently discovered the Nilam, Pamaguan, Semberah, Mutiara, Beras, and Lempake fields.

Huffco later became known as VICO Indonesia (Virginia Indonesia Company) in 1990 after Mr. Roy M. Huffinton sold the company.

After the introduction of the production sharing contract scheme  (PSC) in 1966, and with the discovery of several giant oil and fields in East Kalimantan and in other parts of Indonesia, crude oil production in Indonesia increased from 500,000 BOPD to 1,650,000 BOPD at its peak in 1977.

The Badak LNG Plant in Bontang

The LNG plant known as the Badak LNG was completed in 1977. Located in Bontang, besides processing the gas produced by Huffco from the Badak field, the Badak LNG plant also processes gas produced from the fields operated by Unocal and Total located in East Kalimantan. Up until the completion of the LNG plant, most of the associated gas produced by Unocal and Total were flared.

The Badak LNG plant initially comprised of two trains. Over the years, with new field discoveries, six additional trains were constructed. With 22.5 million tons per year LNG production capacity, it is one of the largest LNG plants in the world.

As of 16 September 2019, Badak LNG has delivered 9445 LNG cargoes to countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, the USA, Russia, and India. 

The Fierce Battlefield during World War II Twice

Being rich in oil and having a refinery, Balikpapan was so vital that it became a battlefield twice during World War II.

The Battle of Balikpapan in 1942

During World War II, in order to control the supply of fuel, Japan invaded Balikpapan in 1942. The Dutch garrison resisted the invasion but eventually was defeated by the much bigger Japanese forces. The refinery was partially destroyed during the invasion. Japanese forces took control of Balikpapan, oil production and the refinery from 1942 to 1945.

The Battle of Balikpapan in 1945

To regain control of Balikpapan and the oil supply, the Allied forces directed by General Douglas McArthur and spearheaded by the Australian 7th Division invaded Balikpapan on 25 June 1945. After 3 weeks of fierce fighting and heavy bombing, the Japanese soldiers in Balikpapan finally surrendered on 21 July 1945. Many Japanese soldiers fought to the end in the battle. There is a Japanese cemetery hidden among the hills in Balikpapan.

The Coal Boom of Balikpapan in the 1990s

Balikpapan experienced another economic boom when it became the center of the booming coal production in East Kalimantan beginning in the 1990s.

The Balikpapan Coal Terminal completed in 1995 is one of the biggest coal terminals in Indonesia. It has a throughput capacity of 15 million tons of coal annually.

Will Balikpapan continue to boom?

Since the discovery of the first oil well in Balikpapan in 1897, Balikpapan has seen several booms in the last 120 years. It has grown from a small fishing village to become a city with a population of 850,000 today.

On 26 August 2019, the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, announced that Indonesia will relocate its capital city from Jakarta to East Kalimantan. As the main gateway to East Kalimantan, Balikpapan will be the center of activities during the construction of a new capital of Indonesia. So, Balikpapan will likely continue to boom.

Finally, Balikpapan indeed is a very interesting town. As an oil and coal mining town, it has been voted several times as the most liveable city in Indonesia.  Thousands of oil people from around the world have worked and lived here. Many children of international expatriates and Indonesian oil professionals from Java, Sumatera and other parts of Indonesia grew up in Balikpapan. Most of them have fond memories of Balikpapan.

Many sons and daughters of the first-generation Indonesian oil professionals follow the footsteps of their parents to work for oil companies in Balikpapan. There is a saying in Balikpapan whoever has drunk the water of Balikpapan will surely return. The writer of this article lived and worked for Unocal in Balikpapan from 1976 to 1980, and he has returned to visit this interesting place many times.

This article was written by Jamin Djuang, a published author of “The Story of Oil and Gas: How Oil and Gas Are Explored, Drilled and Produced” for readers who have not seen an oil field.

Indonesia, Offshore Production, Oil and gas production, Pertamina

The 10 Giant Offshore Oil and Gas Fields in Indonesia

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A drilling rig on top of a fixed offshore production platform. The drilling operation was supported by a floating platform.

Since 1966 when Indonesia began offering production sharing contracts (PSC) for international companies to explore and produce oil and gas in Indonesia, many giant and super-giant oil and gas fields were discovered.

Giant fields are those with estimated ultimate recoverable reserves (EUR) of 500 million barrels of oil or gas equivalent (MMBOE) and super giant oil fields are those holding an equivalent of 5.5 billion barrels of oil reserves.

Here are the ten giant offshore oil and gas fields in Indonesia discovered between 1966 and 2000.

1. Abadi Field

Abadi is a giant gas field discovered by Inpex in 2000 in the Masela contract area in the Arafura Sea. The Abadi field has an estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of 768 MMBOE and it is located 93 miles offshore from the province of Maluku in the eastern part of Indonesia.

Originally the field would be developed using a subsea production system and a floating LNG (FLNG) facility. The plan now is to develop the field based on an onshore LNG development concept.

Inpex in partnership with Royal Dutch Shell is currently conducting preliminary front-end engineering design (Pre-FEED) studies for the Abadi field development based on an onshore concept. The LNG project will produce 9.5 MM tons of LNG annually.

When developed, the Abadi field may become the biggest deepwater gas project in Indonesia. It is expected to produce more than 1 billion SCF of gas per day and 20,000 barrels of condensate per day for 24 years.

2. Gula Field

The Gula field is an offshore gas field discovered by Unocal in its Ganal production sharing contract area located in the Kalimantan strait in 2000. With an estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of 545 MMBOE, it is a giant gas field.

The Gula field, along with the Gendalo discovery and the Gada discovery, is one of the many discoveries made by Unocal in the deep-water area between Kalimantan and Sulawesi. These discoveries confirm that the Central Delta play contains world-class gas resources.

The Gula field is currently an undeveloped discovered resource.

3. Ubadari Field

Ubadari is a giant offshore gas field discovered in 1997. The Ubadari field has an EUR of 500 MMBOE and it is located at Bintuni Bay in West Irian province.

The Ubadari field will supply its gas to the Tangguh LNG plant when the Tangguh LNG Train-3 project is completed in 2020. The Tangguh expansion aims at meeting the ever-increasing demand for energy in Indonesia and accelerating the development of West Irian.

PLN, Indonesia’s electricity company, has signed a sales and purchase agreement to buy up to 1.5 million tons of LNG produced by Tangguh LNG plant annually.

Tangguh LNG plant is scheduled to process the gas produced from the six gas fields located at Bintuni Bay: Vorwata, Wiriagar Deep, Ofaweri, Roabiba, Ubadari, and Wos.

4. Vorwata Field

Vorwata is an offshore giant gas field located in Bintuni Bay in West Irian Province. The Vorwata field, with an EUR of 1833 MMBOE, was discovered by ARCO in the Berau block in 1997. BP became the operator of the Vorwata field after it acquired ARCO.

Gas production from the Vorwata field started in 2009. The field is capable of producing more than 1 BCF of gas per day and the gas is processed into LNG by the Tangguh LNG plant.

5. West Seno Field

The West Seno field is a deepwater oil field discovered by Unocal in 1996. Having an EUR of 553 MMBOE, it is a giant oil field and is currently operated by Chevron.

Lying in water depths of 2,400 to 3,400 feet, the West Seno field is Indonesia’s first deepwater development. It lies in the Makassar Strait PSC off Kalimantan on the continental slope of the northern Mahakam Delta.

The oil is produced using a tension leg platform and a floating production unit, tied back by two export pipelines to onshore infrastructure.

6. Peciko Field

Peciko is a gas field located offshore in the Mahakam Delta in East Kalimantan. The field was discovered by Total with INPEX as its partner in 1991. The Peciko is a giant gas field having an EUR of 1180 MMBOE.

Of all the producing fields in the Mahakam River delta, the Peciko field is unique in that its reservoir trap is both structural and stratigraphic.

The Peciko wells are highly productive having an average well productivity of 80 MMSCF of gas per day. Total daily gas production reached 1700 MMSCFD during its peak in 2005-2006. A substantial quantity of condensate is being produced along with the gas.

7. Tunu Field

The Tunu field is a supergiant gas field discovered by Total along with Inpex as its partner in 1977. It is located in the shallow waters along the outer limits of the delta offshore Mahakam Block in East Kalimantan. It has an EUR of 4378 MMBOE.

Started in 1978, the Tunu field produces gas and condensate having negligible CO2 or H2S, with the main productive reservoirs lying at depths from 2,200 to 4,900 meters.

Developing the large Tunu field is challenging and producing the gas requires drilling a large number of wells. The field has a large surface area of 20 Km wide and 75 Km long and it is located at the wetland of Mahakam swamp.

8. East Natuna Field

The offshore East Natuna gas field was discovered by AGIP in 1970. It is located 140 miles northeast of the Natuna Islands, Indonesia’s northernmost territory. It is a super-giant gas field with estimated recoverable reserves of 46 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas.

There were serious studies done and attempts made by Exxon-Mobil and Pertamina to develop this field.

The field is currently undeveloped due to its very high CO2 content of 71%. To produce the gas will require removing the CO2 from the gas and injecting it back into the reservoir. Production can be commercially viable when the price of oil is above $100 per barrel.

9. Attaka Field

The Attaka field is a giant oil and gas field discovered by Unocal in partnership with Inpex in 1970.   Chevron became the field operator after it acquired Unocal in 2005. Having an EUR of 1000 MMBOE, the Attaka field is located 12 miles from the shore of East Kalimantan.

The huge Attaka reservoir, formed in the very prolific Kutei basin, has an areal closure of 8000 acres. Due to its large areal extent, originally the oil and gas were produced from more than 100 wells located in 6 remote wellhead platforms.

Ten years later, five subsea wells were completed in 1981-1984 to produce the untapped oil accumulation in areas out of reach of the existing remote platforms. These are the first subsea completions in Indonesia.

Attaka field daily oil production was 110,000 BOPD at its peak and gas production was 150 MMSCFPD. Now the Attaka field is quite depleted.

10. Ardjuna Field

The Ardjuna Field is a giant oil field having an EUR of 698 MMBOE. This is the first offshore giant field discovered since the birth of the Indonesian PSC system in 1966.

The Ardjuna field was discovered by ARCO in the Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) production sharing contract area in 1969. Subsequently, it was operated by BP when it acquired ARCO in 2000. Now the field is operated by Pertamina Hulu Energy ONWJ Ltd.

Interesting facts about the Ardjuna field include the drilling of the first horizontal well in Indonesia in 1985 and supplying gas to PLN’s power plant in Muara Karang in Jakarta in 1993.

Pertamina’s refinery in Cilacap began using crude oil from the Ardjuna field in 1986.

This article was written by Jamin Djuang, a published author of “The Story of Oil and Gas: How Oil and Gas Are Explored, Drilled and Produced” for readers who have not seen an oil field.