Natuna tendering to start soon

Indonesia's state oil company will tender the first of 25 packages to develop the giant Natuna gas field in the South China Sea, a Pertamina executive said. In a paper presented to the Asia-Pacific Conference of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, G.A.S. Nayoan, a Pertamina senior executive vice president said: "We will tender and award works contracts for 25 major contracts." In the paper Nayoan said the first two projects would be tendered soon. One would cover "a concept review and optimisation services" and the other covers engineering, materials management and project management services.
The Natuna field, about 687 miles from Jakarta and 375 miles from Singapore, has estimated recoverable hydrocarbons of 46 tcf, Nayoan said. It is the single largest undeveloped gas rouse in Southeast Asia.
The Natuna offshore complex at full development would be the largest offshore installation in the world, Nayoan said. Current plans call for five drilling platforms and up to 150 productionwells to fully develop the field. Three of these would combine drilling and quarters platforms able to accommodate 230 workers. Plans also call for construction of a gas treatment platform measuring 69 metres by 107 metres. Its processing capacity would be 2.1 bn cf of gas a day.
The project would begin construction in 1998 with the first gas delivery in the year 2003, he said.
One of the main challenges is to identify potential buyers and deliver the product through pipelines directly to them or alternatively to LNG plants in the region. "Thus the importance of long distance pipelines connecting distinct sellers and distinct buyers should be recognised," Nayoan said.
Pertamina is also looking into the idea of connecting Natuna to a proposed Trans ASEAN Gas Transmission System. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.