No decision yet regarding Kalimantan deepwater gas project: Chevron

American energy giant Chevron Corp. said on Tuesday it has not yet made any decision whether to go ahead with its deepwater gas project off East Kalimantan.

Steve Green, Managing Director of the IndoAsia unit of Chevron, told reporters that the firm and its partners may ask bids from consultants to make the front-end engineering design (FEED) of the Gehem and Gendalo natural gas project next year and decide whether to go ahead with the project as early as 2011.

The Gehem and Gendalo natural gas projects in the Makassar Strait would be the deepest offshore gas fields in Indonesia, at water depths ranging from 2,500 to 6,000 feet (760-1,800 metres). Once they come into production, the fields will provide new gas supplies to the Badak LNG plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan, which is Indonesia?s largest LNG complex.

?We'll be entering FEED likely early next year,? Green told reporters in Minas, Siak regency, Riau on the sidelines of the ceremony to celebrate the production of 11 billion barrels of oil from the area.

The firm earlier said that the development of the fields will cost the firm about US$6 billion.

Companies around the world have been reviewing their investment plans following the sharp drops in oil prices amid the global economic meltdown. Some buyers of Indonesian LNG have indicated that they would reduce their order as demand for the fuel has been declining.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on the sidelines of the ceremony that the government would first assess the economic viability of the project before giving a go-ahead to the project.

?The project?s economics is very important,? he said.

Chevron controls 80 percent and Eni SpA owns the rest of the project. (Godang)