Total inaugurates Peciko gas field in East Kalimantan

JAKARTA (JP): French-based gas producer PT Total Indonesie officially inaugurated on Wednesday its Peciko gas field in East Kalimantan, claiming it to be the world's most significant gas discovery in the past 10 years.

The gas field, which has a proven reserve of 6.2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) or equivalent to 1.2 billion barrels of oil, will turn the company into the country's largest gas producer.

Total president Jean Marie Boeque said the Peciko gas field was now producing 800 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd), which is up from 400 mmscfd when it began production in December 1999.

"We have invested US$340 million for the development of this project," Bouque said during the inauguration ceremony, which was attended by the Minister of Mines and Energy Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The Peciko field is located some 60 kilometers offshore from the city of Balikpapan, where gas is found at depths from 2,100 meters to 3,900 meters below sea level.

The company has installed two production platforms at the gas field, each with a production capacity of 400 mmcfd.

The gas is transported through a 25-kilometer pipeline to an onshore processing plant in the Senipah area, where the gas undergoes preprocessing before being transmitted to the Bontang liquefied natural gas (LNG) refinery plant through an 80- kilometer pipeline for liquefaction.

Total said in a statement with the operation of the Peciko field, the company now accounts for 60 percent of the refinery's total annual output of 21.6 million tons.

According to the company, the development of the Peciko gas field has placed East Kalimantan as the country's largest gas producer with reserves reaching 51.8 Tcf.

Bouque said this project was just the first phase of further developments which would include additional export lines and gas- processing trains.

"The total investment cost is estimated to be $1 billion," he said.

Daily gas production at the Peciko gas field, located inside Total's Mahakam Block, has a daily output of 470,000 barrels, he said.

Total holds a 50 percent stake at the Mahakam Block with the remaining shares held by the Japanese company INPEX.

Total Indonesie is a subsidiary of the Paris-based Totalfina Elf Group.(bkm)