Indonesia consider sending Natuna D Alpha gas through pipeline
Najib claims SBY has offered Petronas to develop Natuna
Thursday, April 23 2009 - 06:58 AM WIB
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Thursday the option of delivering the Natuna D Alpha gas through pipelines will not need a lot of investment since there has been a pipeline network linking the Natuna area to Malaysia and Singapore.
Furthermore, Purnomo said, if the gas is delivered through pipelines, state owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina, which has been appointed by the government as the developer of the block, does not need to build special facilities to separate the gas from CO2.
?The Natuna gas can be delivered through pipelines despite its high CO2 contents,? Purnomo said during a seminar in Jakarta titled ?Can Oil and Gas Sector Contribute to the National Energy Independence??
Aside from the delivery-through-pipeline option, the government is also considering the option of building a floating LNG terminal at the Natuna D-Alpha block.
?The idea now is a combination of pipelines and floating LNG terminal,? Purnomo said.
The Natuna D-Alpha block is located in the eastern part of the Natuna area. The block is believed to hold 47 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, but the gas contains a lot of CO2. There are also several gas fields on the western part of the Natuna area. These West Natuna fields have been supplying gas to Singapore and Malaysia through pipelines.
Purnomo said the Natuna D-Alpha gas could be delivered to both countries to support the current supplies from West Natuna.
?We may also send the gas to Rayong in Thailand,? he said.
American firm ExxonMobil Corp, which still claimed ownership of the block, have often said the block is very expensive to develop because the gas must be cleaned of the CO2 before being delivered to buyers or converted into LNG. It is one of the reasons cited by the company that it had delayed the development plan of the block for many years.
Meanwhile, visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Sri Mohd Najib bin Hj Tun Abdul Razak expressed gratitude on Thursday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had offered Malaysian state owned firm Petronas to develop the Natuna D-Alpha block. He made the statement after a meeting with Susilo.
Purnomo, however, denied that Petronas had been offered to develop the block.
?That?s what the prime minister said, but I don?t know. Until now, we haven?t yet held any meeting with Petronas. Maybe, others have,? Purnomo said, adding that reports that he had received suggest that Pertamina is still looking for partners to develop the block.
Latest reports say Pertamina has shortlisted potential partners in the Natuna D-Alpha block into four, that is Royal Dutch Shell, Norway?s StatoilHydro, the China National Petroleum Co. (CNPC) and the block?s former operator US-based ExxonMobil.
The government has taken over the block from ExxonMobil and transferred it to Pertamina on the grounds that the US firm?s contract on the block had expired. (Godang)