A pumping well of Pertamina. Photo courtesy of Pertamina
Here is the monthly summary of oil and gas exploration and production activities in Indonesia in May 2022, according to SKK Migas.
· Daily crude oil production: 616,800 BOPD · Daily gas production: 5321 MMSCFD · Daily oil and gas production: 1,567,000 BOEPD · Exploration wells drilled YTD: 11 · Development wells drilled YTD: 291 · 2-D seismic survey completed YTD: 559 KM · 3-D seismic survey completed YTD: 269 KM2 · Amount of investment YTD: USD 3.9 billion · Number of Work Areas: 170
Here are other recent happenings in the oil patch of Indonesia.
· Pertamina recorded $2.046 billion corporate profit in 2021. This almost doubles the profit it made in 2020. · Pertamina EP has completed the construction of the Beringin A gathering station in Muara Enim in South Sumatera. The gathering station is designed to increase the capacity of the Prabumulih field to handle an additional 15 million MMSCFD of gas and 382 BPD of condensate. · Pertamina Hulu Energy has made hydrocarbon discovery from its exploration well GQX-1 in the Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) work area. · Gas production from the newly completed JML1 platform in the Jumelai field operated by Pertamina Hulu Mahakam had come on stream. The gas is piped to the production facility of the Senipah-Peciko-South Mahakam field. The Jumelai project is expected to produce 45 MMSCFD of gas and 710 BPD of condensate. · PT BSP (Bumi Siak Pusako) has started drilling its exploration well Nuri-1X in the CPP (Corridor Plain and Pekanbaru) Block in Riau. The company plans to drill 15 development wells and two exploration wells in 2022. · Pertamina Hulu Energy has started drilling the exploration well NSO-R2 in the North Sumatera Offshore work area. · Gas production from the new platform WPS-3 of Pertamina Hulu Mahakam came on stream on 10 June 2022. The installation of the WPS-3 platform and the subsequent drilling of the development wells are part of the JSN (Jumelai, North Sisi, and North Nubi) project. This platform is designed to handle 45 MMSCFD of gas.
This article is curated by Jamin Djuang, Chief Learning Officer of LDI Training.
Offshore oil and gas production and processing platforms and facility.
In 2018, daily world oil production amounts to around 92 million barrels per day, increasing slightly 0.7% from previous year.
Here are the world top ten oil producers according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in 2017:
USA – 15.6 Million barrels of oil per day
Saudi Arabia – 12.1 Million BOPD
Russia – 11.2 Million BOPD
Canada – 5.0 Million BOPD
China – 4.8 Million BOPD
Iran – 4.7 Million BOPD
Iraq – 4.5 Million BOPD
UAE – 3.7 Million BOPD
Brazil – 3.4 Million BOPD
Kuwait – 2.9 Million BOPD
The USA is the largest oil producer in the world in 2017. The production of crude oil in the USA is expected to increase into 2019. The USA is also the world’s largest consumer of oil. Its daily oil consumption in 2019 is projected to increase by 340,000 barrels to 20.65 million barrels, according to EIA.
EIA reported on 21 December 2018 United States produced a total of 16.3 million barrels per day of crude oil and natural gas liquids in November 2018. This total production consists of 11.7 million BPD of crude oil and 4.6 BPD of natural gas liquids or NGL.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is the largest oil exporting country. As the most well-known and influential oil producer, it has 260 billion barrels of oil reserves, which is about 22% of the world’s oil reserves.
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.
The traditional oil we use to lubricate our car engine is called mineral oil because it is derived from crude oil. Mineral oil consists of hydrocarbon molecules extracted from the distillation of crude oil. They are mainly alkanes in the range of C-15 to C- 40.
An alkane is a saturated hydrocarbon consisting of only carbon and hydrogen atoms. Also called paraffin, it has the general formula of CnH2n+2. The simplest alkane is methane, CH4, where the n=1.
Due to the chemical and physical properties of the hydrocarbon alkanes, they have limited resistance to oxidation and thermal breakdown at very high temperature.
Synthetic oil, on the other hand, consists of synthetic molecules. They are artificially made and specially designed to provide excellent lubrication and stability at very high and also at low temperature. Since these synthetic molecules do not deteriorate easily, they can last longer than mineral oil even at extreme conditions in an engine.
Synthetic oil is more expensive than mineral oil, nevertheless, it is a superior lubricant to keep your car healthy. With mineral oil, it is recommended you change the oil every 5000 to 10,000 miles. Whereas using synthetic oil, you may change the oil every 20,000 miles.
Finally, it is important to note regardless of the type of oil you use, you should change your engine oil based on the recommended interval because it gets contaminated with combustion by-products that accumulate at about the same rate regardless of oil type.
Attaka central platforms from left to right: Wellhead platform, Central Processing Platform, Compression Platform, and Quarter Platform
The Attaka Field Discovery
Attaka field, a giant offshore oil field located 12 miles from the shore of East Kalimantan in Indonesia was discovered by Union Oil of California (UNOCAL) in August 1970. This giant oil field having 1023 MMBOE of recoverable reserves is the first commercial oil field discovered in offshore Kalimantan.
General Soeharto, the president of Indonesia at that time, inaugurated the Attaka field and the Santan terminal on 22 January 1973.
Santan terminal is the onshore complex where the crude oil from the Attaka field is processed and stored before it is exported by oil tankers. Santan terminal is also where the produced gas is processed before it is sent to Badak LNG for liquefaction.
Unocal along with its 50-50 partner, Inpex, operated the Attaka field until it was acquired by Chevron in August 2005. Later on, Pertamina Hulu Kalimantan Timur assumed the operatorship of the field on 25 October 2018 when the production sharing contract expired.
Interesting Facts About the Attaka Field
Two years after its discovery, the Attaka field started producing oil in November 1972, making it the first offshore field in Kalimantan.
Following the first discovery well, the Attaka Well 1A, seven appraisal wells were drilled to assess to size and potential of the hydrocarbon accumulation.
The huge Attaka reservoir, formed in the very prolific Kutei basin, is a faulted anticline. Its areal extent of oil accumulation is nearly 10 square miles. Attaka field is one of five giant oil fields discovered in the Kutei basin.
Initially, the Attaka field consisted of six wellhead platforms producing oil from 52 wells, and the central platforms comprised the Quarter Platform, Processing Platform, and Gas Compression Platform. After 1980, additional platforms and wells were added to maintain production and maximize the hydrocarbon recovery. It eventually had a total of 22 platforms and 109 wells, five of which are subsea wells.
Five subsea wells were completed in 1981-1984 to produce the oil accumulation in areas out of reach of the existing remote platforms. These are the first subsea completions in Indonesia and in Asia.
Initially, its produced associated gas was flared. Finally, the flaring stopped with the completion of the Badak LNG plant in 1977. Unocal, Total Indonesie, and Huffco were the gas suppliers to the Badak LNG plant.
Attaka wells have very high permeability. It is as high as 5 Darcy in some wells.
Attaka field’s daily oil production peaked at 116,950 BOPD in December 1977 and gas production peaked at 174 MMSCFD in October 1980.
A significant milestone was reached when cumulative oil production of 600 million barrels was recorded at 6:42 PM on March 7, 2001. Cumulative gas production in that same year was 1.3 trillion SCF.
Attaka field has more than 50 sands with variable oil reserves at depths between 2800 and 7600 feet. Reservoir sand thickness ranges from 5 to 100 feet. A multiple zone completion method using dual tubing strings and multiple packers was selected to produce them economically. This method allows the engineers the flexibility to select from which of the 2 to 4 perforated zones in each well they would like to produce
Decommissioning of Platform EB
The Attaka field has been producing oil and gas for 50 years and its production has been declining for the past 30 years. The field is currently producing less than 5000 BOPD.
Finally, the Attaka field’s EB Platform was decommissioned in November 2022. It is the first decommissioned offshore oil platform in Indonesia.
Interestingly, the EB Platform was not the oldest platform in the Attaka field. In fact, it was one of the latest platforms built in Attaka. Platform EB was built in 2000 to replace Platform E that was burnt down due to the blowout of Well E-20 in August 1997.
The EB platform was built to accommodate the drilling of seven 7 fully insurance-reimbursable wells to tap reserves estimated at 3.25 million barrels of oil and 18.5 BSCF of gas.
Jamin Djuang – A former Production Supervisor of the Attaka Field in 1980.
