Chevron Starts Gas Production from Indonesia's Bangka Field

Chevron has started natural gas production from the Bangka field, a part of its Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) project, in East Kalimantan, it said August 31.

The Bangka project has a design capacity of 110mn ft³/d and 4,000 barrels of condensate/day. Chevron has a 62% interest in the project with the other contributing joint venture participants being Eni with a 20% interest and Tip Top with an 18% interest. A final investment decision was reached in 2014, following government approvals. Chevron began drilling the development wells in the second half of 2014.

Chevron’s operated interests in Kalimantan include four offshore production-sharing contract (PSC) areas covering some 11,100 km² offshore in the Kutei Basin.

Chevron Indonesia map (Credit: Chevron)

In the Kutei Basin in East Kalimantan, most of the production in 2015 came from 14 offshore fields in the shelf area within the East Kalimantan PSC, with the remainder from the deepwater West Seno field in the Makassar Strait PSC. In 2016, Chevron advised the government that it would not propose to extend the East Kalimantan PSC and intends to return the assets to the government when the PSC expires in 2018.

There are two natural gas deepwater development projects in the Kutei Basin known collectively as the Indonesia Deepwater Development. The other project, Gendalo-Gehem, includes two separate hub developments, each with its own FPU, subsea drill centers, natural gas and condensate pipelines, and onshore receiving facility. Plans call for the produced natural gas to be sold domestically and through liquefied natural gas export. The project has a planned design capacity of 1.1bn ft³/d of natural gas and 47,000 b/d of condensate. Chevron’s interest is about 63%. Final investment decision is pending.

Shardul Sharma