In April 2018, the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources approved the Italian oil and gas giant’s Plan of Development (POD) for the Merakes development project located offshore the East Kalimantan province.
Eni’s board of directors’ approval follows the recent conversion to the Gross Split Scheme of the East Sepinggan Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and the approval of the revised field development plan under the terms of the Gross Split from the Minister of Energy of Indonesia.
Located in the East Sepinggan block in the Kutei Basin in Makassar Strait, the Merakes field will be developed through the drilling and construction of six subsea wells in 1,500m water depth. The development plan also calls for construction and installation of subsea systems and pipelines to connect the offshore gas field to the Jangkrik Floating Production Unit (FPU), located 35kms in the north east direction.
Gas produced from the Merakes development project will be transported to the Bontang LNG plant by using the other existing facilities of Jangkrik field and also the East Kalimantan transportation network.
The Merakes field, which was discovered in 2014 is estimated to contain about two trillion cubic feet of lean gas.
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said: “The Merakes Development Project approval is an important step for our strategy in South East Asia aimed at increasing both our presence and our production only through an organic growth.
“In order to do so, we will leverage on exploration, which will enable us to increase our reserves first, and then our gas production thanks to the optimization of existing facilities and complying with the strictest time-to-market. The Indonesian domestic market is in big expansion and we will continue to pay attention in order for our activities to support and valorize it”.
Eni with a stake of 85% through its subsidiary Eni East Sepinggan is the operator of East Sepinggan Contract Area. It is partnered by Pertamina Hulu Energi East Sepinggan, which holds the remaining stake of 15%.
