West Natuna gas pipeline to be officially launched next week
Wednesday, January 10 2001 - 04:00 AM WIB
The state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina will officially launched the West Natuna Transportation System (WNTS), the country's landmark gas pipeline, in Singapore on January 15.
Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim said in a press statement that the gas pipeline investment was expected to generate significant foreign exchange earnings over its lifetime for Indonesia and was also expected to provide a significant boost to the economy.
The US$1.5 billion underwater gas pipeline project was completed when the WNTS delivered its first gas into Singapore on December 3, 2000.
The WNTS is the result of a joint working partnership between Pertamina and three production sharing contractors (PSCs) which includes Conoco Indonesia Inc. Ltd., Gulf Indonesia Resources Ltd., and Premier Oil Natuna Sea Ltd. Conoco is the operator of the system.
The WNTS is a series of interconnecting pipelines that provide a means of gathering as from 17 different separate fields, operated by the three PSCs, in the West Natuna Sea and transport it to Singapore in support of the gas sales agreement between Pertamina and Singapore's SembCorp.
The total length of the system is 656 kilometers which makes one o the longest underwater pipeline system in the world. It has been designed with a life span of 50 years.
The system has a capacity of 700 million standard cubic feet per day but could be increased to one billion standard cubic feet per day. It has been designed in a flexible manner to allow gas to be introduced from other areas of the Natuna Sea and to facilitate additional delivery points in the future.
Under the Pertamina-SembCorp gas sales agreement, an average of 325 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas will be available to Singapore for 22 years. (Godang S.)