AsianOil: Pertamina wins regulatory approval for Gajah Besar development

Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina has secured regulatory approval for its plan of development (PoD) for the Gajah Besar natural gas and condensate field onshore South Sumatra.
SKK Migas planning deputy Benny Lubiantara said in an August 29 statement that Pertamina EP intended to invest $15.5mn in drilling three development wells, reworking another well and constructing pipeline from producing wells to the Paku Gajah compression system.
The PoD approval came less than three weeks after Pertamina EP submitted its development application on August 10, with Lubiantara noting that the regulator was looking to rapidly turn around upstream submissions to help speed up operations.
“We do this effort with the hope that [contractors] will also immediately realise activities in the field, so that the resulting production can be used to support increased production in the coming years,” Lubiantara said.
Pertamina EP’s PoD envisions producing 15.52bn cubic feet (439.53mn cubic metres) of gas and 100,500 barrels of condensate over a nine-year period, with first hydrocarbons slated to flow from 2022.
The official added: “We expect the project to be on stream in the first quarter of 2022. In the early stages, gas production is estimated at 2.29mn cubic feet [64,850 cubic metres] per day, and will gradually increase to 5.29 mmcf [149,810 cubic metres] per day. As for condensate, in the early stages of production it will be around 10 bpd and then it will be gradually increased to 23 bpd.”
The Gajah Besar approval is one of 16 PoDs SKK Migas has greenlit this year, still significantly short of 37 approvals the upstream regulator hopes to deliver.
Despite the ongoing challenges that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic poses to upstream operations, SKK Migas is striving to help bring as many upstream projects to fruition as quickly as possible given the government’s 2030 production target of 1mn bpd of oil and 12 bcf (339.84 mcm) per day of gas.
The regulator’s operations deputy, Julius Wiratno, inaugurated the West Betara (WB) gas compression and condensate pumping station at the Jabung Block on August 26.
State-run PetroChina, which operates Jabung via local arm PetroChina International Jabung, developed the station to maintain gas production from both the WB and South Betara (SB) fields at around 30 mmcf (849,600 cubic metres) per day.
Commenting on the project’s progress, Wiratno highlight the importance of its completion amid the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic.
He added: “We are optimistic, even though there are still pandemic constraints, the target of 12 onstream projects in 2021 will be realised. The successful completion of all project targets in 2021 will support the achievement of the production target of 1mn bpd and 12 bcf per day in 2030.”
The station, which came online on August 18, was delayed by more than a month from its original start-up date of July 12, owing to government-imposed movement restrictions.
PetroChina’s head of block operations, Wang Qilin, noted that the station’s completion paved the way to bring another four gas wells on stream from the Baturaja formation, with a production target of 7.5 mmcf (212,400 cubic metres) per day.
PetroChina’s partners in the block include Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina Hulu Energi, Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas Carigali and GPI Jabung. The Chinese major also operates the Bangko block in Jambi.