Drilling at Abadi-9 well in progress

By Godang Sitompul

Japanese firm Inpex Corporation has completed drilling at Abadi 8 delineation well in Masela Block in Timor Sea and has started drilling at Abadi 9 delineation well, according to a senior official at upstream authority SKK Migas.

SKK Migas? Survey and Drilling Division Arief Fanzuri said on Thursday Inpex employed a rig called Discoverer Seven Seas for the drilling.

The Abadi 8 well was drilled to the 4055 meter measurement depth (mmd), while, under the firm?s plan, the Abadi 9 well will be drilled to the 3965 mmd.

?Drilling at Abadi 9 started on Oct. 6,? Arief told Petromindo.com, adding that the firm also planned to drill Abadi 10 delineation well.

?The firm plans to drill one exploration well called Berkat 1 once drillings at Abadi 9 and 10 wells are done. It has been fixed that the Berkat 1 well will be drilled in early 2014 and the drilling will take 75 days,? Arief explained.

Abadi field is one of the major gas fields discovered in eastern Indonesia in recent years. Inpex and its partner Royal Dutch Shell plan to build a floating LNG production facility to process the gas into LNG.

Meanwhile, two Front End Engineering Design (FEED) works for the Abadi project, namely FEED for FLNG (Floating LNG) and FEED for SURF (Subsea Production System, Umbilicals, Risers and Flowlines), are now in progress. Sources said the SURF FEED is expected to be completed by the end of this year, while the FLNG FEED, which started in January this year, is expected to be completed within ?15 months?

Editing by Johannes Simbolon