Government studying tight gas potentials

The government is carrying out a seismic survey to find out tight gas resources in Indonesia as part of the efforts to raise the national gas reserves.

?The seismic survey will be followed by an exploration to ascertain the availability of the tight gas,? Hendra Fadly, Director of Oil and Gas Upstream Business Supervision at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said on Monday.

Theoretically, Hendra said tight gas potentials in Indonesia are huge. However, seismic survey and exploration should be carried out to prove the theory. Tight gas is believed to be available in East Kalimantan, Java, South Sumatra and North Sumatra.

According to Wikiepedia, tight gas is natural gas produced from reservoir rocks with such low permeability that massive hydraulic fracturing is necessary to produce the well at economic rates. Although shales have low permeability and low effective porosity, shale gas is usually considered separate from tight gas, which is contained most commonly in sandstone, but sometimes in limestone. Tight gas is considered an unconventional source of natural gas.

Countries that have developed are the United States and Canada, according to the ministry.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon