Medco hopes to start production at Senoro block in 2008

PT Medco Energi Internasional hopes that the company will be able to begin commercial production at the Senoro Toili gas block in Sulawesi, one of its most prospective gas concession areas, by the end of 2008, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Monday.

Medco?s finance director Sugiharto said that the company had prepared four scenarios for the development of the gas block which is estimated to have a proven gas reserve of about 2.3 trillion cubic feet and estimated supply capacity of between 600 and 700 MMSCFD.

One of the scenarios is to sell the gas in the form of LNG to California, the United States in cooperation with Marathon Oil Corp, while the second scenario is to develop ammoniac and methanol plants that could absorb the gas from the Senoro gas block.

The third scenario is approaching PT Aneka Tambang and PT Inco in Pomalaa to build more gas power plants to support their processing activities and procure the gas needs from the Senoro field, and the fourth scenario is studying the possibility of cooperating with Shell to make liquid gas that can be used for the production of gasoline.

According to Sugiharto, the most feasible alternative is to develop the gas from the Senoro block into LNG in cooperation with Marathon Oil Corp. (*)