Mobil Oil plans to open three more gas fields

Mobil Oil plans to open three more gas fields

JAKARTA (JP): Mobil Oil Indonesia will develop three new gas
fields in anticipation of the depletion of supplies from the Arun
field, Indonesian largest gas field in Arun, Aceh.

"Two of the new fields, located in South Lhok Sukon, with a
total reserve of two trillion cubic feet are expected to come on
stream in 1997," the company's public relations coordinator, I.K.
Mahmud told the Jakarta Post yesterday.

He said the third field, located offshore Arun, will come on
stream by 2000.

Mahmud said the new fields will supply the Arun LNG plant
which exports to Japan and South Korea. He said the latest LNG
shipment contract with Japan will expire in 2019.

"The additional reserves of new fields will enable the Arun
LNG plant to operate at full capacity ( six trains) until the
year 2019," he said.

Earlier, Vice president of PT Arun NGL Indra Kartasasmita said
that the LNG plant will have to shut down two of its six
production trains by 2014 due to a lack of gas supply unless new
gas fields are discovered and developed.

PT Arun NGL is 55 percent owned by state-owned oil company
Pertamina, 30 percent by Mobil Oil of the United States, and 15
percent by Japanese Indonesia LNG Co.

Pertamina currently operates 12 LNG production trains. Six of
the trains are in Arun and another six trains in Bontang, East
Kalimantan, with a total capacity of about 28 million tons per
annum.

Mahmud said Mobil Oil now applies the Booster Compressor
technology to push gas up from the Arun field which has a total
reserve of 15 Trillion cubic feet, one of the five largest gas
reserves in the world.

He said that the depletion of gas reserves in the Arun field
has caused the decline of its compression power.

The Arun plant produces an average of 12 million tons of LNG
per year, 90,000 barrels of condensate per day, and 1.5 million
tons of liquefied petroleum gas per year. (04)