Jadestone to Rerun Tender for Vietnam FPSO

Asia Pacific-focused Jadestone Energy plans to rerun a tender for a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for a gas project it is developing off Vietnam, it said in an update on February 26.

Jadestone delayed the development of the Nam Du and U Minh gas fields off Vietnam in March last year, after failing to get approval on time from local authorities. The target for first gas was pushed back by one year until late 2022.

In its update, Jadestone said it expected to make "a return to active organic re-investment and growth" in 2021 following the market turbulence caused by the Covid-19 pandemic last year. Besides preparing to rerun the FPSO tender, the company also said it was working with state-owned partner Petrovietnam to agree a gas production profile for the project, in order to finalise a gas sales contract and secure government approval.

Jadestone said it had made good progress integrating the onshore Lemang production-sharing contract (PSC) in Indonesia, which it bought a 90% stake in last December from Mandala Energy, into its portfolio. It has also begun development planning for the Akatara gas field, situated within the Lemang PSC area.

Akatara was previously developed as an oil asset but is assessed to hold 115bn ft³ of best-estimate wet gas in place. Jadestone is finalising a heads of agreement on gas sales from the field, which will be followed up by a firm gas contract with buyers, ahead of the company seeking formal development approval.

Jadestone also works in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and the Philippines. The company expects to produce 11,500-13,500 barrels/day of oil in 2021, assuming the drilling of the H6 well at the Montara field and workovers at the Skua field, both offshore Australia, are successful, and that it completes the purchase of a 69% interest in the Maari asset off New Zealand from Austria's OMV in the first half of the year as planned.

Jadestone expects to spend $85-95mn in capital investment in 2021, mostly relating to the work at Montara and Skua.