Total sees gas production from E. Kalimantan block to start in ?12

French oil giant Total revealed on Wednesday that gas production from its South Mahakam PSC in East Kalimantan is expected to start in 2012.

According to the company?s 2010 mid-year outlook presentation, South mahakam Phase 1 and 2 will produce 55,000 barrels of oil equivalent which will be processed into LNG.

The block is now in the development/EPC stage.

In 2009 an official of upstream oil, gas authority BPMIGAS said that the block will produce 250MMCFD of gas that will be delivered to the Senipah processing facility through a 67-km long pipeline. The processed gas will be then transported to the Badak LNG plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan as additional gas supplies.

The block is operated by Total, which partners with Japan?s Inpex Corp with equal interest of 50 percent each.

The block is adjacent to the giant Mahakam PSC, which is also equally shared by Total and Inpex and is now Indonesia?s biggest gas producer with production of around 2.4 BCFD. (alex)