Pertamina has completed the construction of the 67 km gas pipeline supplying gas to its Unit II Refinery in Dumai. With the commissioning of the 24-inch pipeline on 14 April 2019, the fuel needed to operate the refinery is now supplied by the gas produced from the nearby gas fields.
The gas comes from the following three blocks:
The prolific Grissik field located in the Corridor Block which is operated by ConocoPhillips. The Grissik field produced more than 900 MMSCF of gas per day in 2018. With an area of 2258 square kilometers, the Corridor Block is one of the largest gas blocks in Indonesia. Other very large gas blocks are the Tangguh and the Mahakam blocks.
The fields located in the Bentu Block which is managed by PT Mega Energi Persada (PT EMP). The Bentu Block is located near the city of Pekanbaru. PT EMP also supplies its gas to Indonesia’s state power company (PLN) and Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP).
The oil and gas fields located in the Jambi Merang Block which is now operated by Pertamina Hulu Energi Jambi Merang (PHE Jambi Merang). PHE Jambi Merang acquired the block from the Joint Operating Body Pertamina-Talisman Jambi Merang on 9 February 2019.
In the past, the refinery used the fuel oil, Naptha and fuel gas it produced internally to meet the fuel needs of the refinery.
The project has brought significant economic benefits to both the gas producers and the refinery. In using the gas, the refinery is able to reduce its fuel costs by 40%.
The Sarulla power plant with a total capacity of 330 MW is the largest geothermal power plant in Indonesia and also one of the 10 largest geothermal power plants in the world.
The Sarulla power plant has three combined-cycle units. Construction of the power plant started in May 2014 and the first unit named Silangkitang was completed in March 2017. Units Namora I-Langit 1 and Namora I-Langit 2 started operation in October 2017 and May 2018 respectively.
Located in North Sumatera of Indonesia, the power plant is operated by Sarulla Operations Ltd, a consortium consisting of Medco Energi, Itochu, Kyushu Electric Power Company, Inpex and Ormat with a total investment of US $1.7 billion.
The generated electricity is distributed by PLN, Perusahaan Listrik Negara, which is the state-owned electricity company of Indonesia.
This project demonstrates the commitment of the Indonesian government to increase energy production from renewable resources, especially from its huge geothermal potential. Indonesia has 40% of the world’s geothermal resources. The Indonesia government said three new geothermal power plants will start to operate this year. They are the 55 MW PLTP Lumut Balai, 40 MW PLTP Sorik Marapi and the 5 MW PLTP Sokoria.
The total installed geothermal power in the world in 2018 is 14,600 MW according to ThinkGeoEnergy. The five countries producing more than one Giga Watt (GW) of geothermal power are:
The USA – 3639 MW
Indonesia – 1948 MW
The Philippines – 1868 MW
Turkey – 1347 MW
New Zealand – 1005 MW
Here is a little bit of an interesting history about the Sarulla project. The Sarulla geothermal resource was originally explored and discovered by Unocal North Sumatera Geothermal. Unocal’s plan to construct the first power plant was suspended during the financial crisis in 1998.
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.
