Chevron's deepwater projects in the Makassar Strait, offshore East Kalimantan, could contain 2.3 Tcf of natural gas and the projects may require investments totaling $7 billion, a senior official at Indonesia's upstream regulator BPMigas said Tuesday.
"The figure could change depending on the front-end engineering design and final investment decision," BPMigas' head of communication Gde Pradnyana said.
The deepwater projects are the Bangka, Gehem, Gendalo, Maha and Gandang fields.
Bangka is expected to be on stream in Q1 2015; Gendalo, Maha and Gandang, known as the Gendalo hub, are expected to start production in Q4 2016; and Gehem is expected to start initial production in Q2 2017, Pradnyana said.
Bangka is expected to produce 120,000 Mcf/day of gas and 2,880 b/d of condensate; and the Gendalo, Gehem, Maha and Gandang fields are expected to produce a total of 1.12 Bcf/day of gas and 55,000 b/d of condensate, Pradnyana said earlier.
When asked to comment, the company's spokesman Morgan Crinklaw said in an email: "Chevron does not comment on future project timelines or production forecasts. We are continuing to advance the Gendalo-Gehem and Bangka projects through the design phase and are working closely with the government to obtain required permits and approvals to advance the project."
Chevron plans to drill 28 deepsea wells in the five fields, which will be integrated into two floating production units and a subsea tie-back.
The two floating production units are the Gendalo hub, which will integrate the Gendalo, Maha and Gandang fields; and the second unit is the Gehem hub, a floating production unit in Gehem field.
Meanwhile the Bangka field will be connected to a production unit in West Seno, which is also operated by Chevron. The final investment decision for the Bangka field is expected to be made in 2013, and for the Gendalo hub and Gehem hub it will be a year later, according to the BPMigas website.
Indonesia has seen its crude and condensate output fall over the years because of natural decline at its aging fields, while its gas output has increased.
Indonesia's gas reserves are expected to reach 104.49 Tcf in 2012.
The country produced 8.846 Bcf/d of gas in 2011, above its target of 7.769 Bcf/d; and Indonesia has set a gas production target at 7.655 Bcf/d for 2012.
