Indonesia Expects Seven CBM Blocks to Come Online This Year

Indonesian government expects up to seven CBM blocks to start producing by end of 2012. Currently, there are four producing CBM blocks including Sanga-Sanga, Sangatta, and Sekayu.

Evita Legowo, Director General of Oil & Gas, has said government has decided higher price for CBM gas compared with conventional ones, because of a more expensive cost for CBM development, Indonesia Today reported last week.

As of August 2012, there were 50 CBM Working Areas and the government targets to add five or six more awards in Sumatera and Kalimantan. The government also targets 210 CBM Working Areas by 2025, or 15 awards per annum.

Indonesian CBMs are mostly located in the basins of South Sumatera (183 TCF), Barito (101.6 TCF), Kutai (89.4 TCF), and Central Sumatera (52.5 TCF) for high prospective category, while North Tarakan (17.5 TCF), Berau (8.4 TCF), and Ombilin (0.5 TCF) are in medium category, and Sulawesi (2.0 TCF) and Bengkulu (3.6 TCF) are in low category.

One major CBM player in Indonesia, Dart Energy Ltd, said earlier that it will kick off commercial production from Sangatta West, East Kalimantan by end of this year. 

The government has also awarded five companies exploration rights to develop four coal bed methane (CBM) fields and one oil and gas block.

The winners included PT Equator Energy, which was awarded exploration rights for the offshore East Sokang oil and gas field in East Natuna; Dart Energy International Pte. Ltd., to develop the Bontang Bengalon CBM field in East Kalimantan; PT Bumi Parahyangan Energi to develop the Belawa CBM field in South Sulawesi; a consortium of Ephindo Sekayu 2 Inc. and Star Energy Sekayu. Ltd. to develop the Sekayu CBM field in South Sumatra; and consortium of CBM Asia Dev. Corp and PT Tranaco Utama to develop the Kuala Kapuas I CBM field in Central Kalimantan.