Total Indonesie to be top gas producer by 2000

Total Indonesie to be top gas producer by 2000

Total Indonesie, a subsidiary of a major international oil and
gas company based in Paris, has been operating in Indonesia since
1968 under a Production Sharing Contract with Pertamina. In its
initial stages, Total Indonesie was active in producing mainly
crude oil from the Handil and Bekapai fields. However, a major
shift occurred with the development of gas reserves at the Tunu
and Peciko fields in the Makassar Strait off the east coast of
Kalimantan.

Stretching 80 kilometers from north to south across the
Mahakam River Delta, the Tunu Field, discovered in 1977, started
to produce gas in 1990, which was eventually delivered to the
Bontang LNG Plant for export. Significant deliveries of the early
1990s resulted in subsequent development phases of Tunu.

Mid-1998 saw the completion of Phase IV of the Tunu
Development Project, which produces and delivers gas to the
seventh gas liquefaction train -- Train G (a set of equipment
that performs the job of purifying and liquefying at minus 160
Celsius a single stream of natural gas once it has been separated
from heavier hydrocarbon components, including crude oil or
condensate) -- in Bontang.

The Peciko Field, discovered in 1991, is located offshore
about 60 kilometers northeast of the city of Balikpapan.
Development work of this field are expected to be completed by
September 1999 and includes two offshore gas manifold-wellhead
platforms, two 24-inch subsea pipelines to the shore (25 kms and
27 kms respectively), an onshore processing plant and a 86-km 42-
inch pipeline to the Badak Gas Plant, located about 65 kms from
Bontang. This gas plant coordinates the feed gas delivery to the
Bontang.

At present, the offshore platforms are already in place and
the subsea line laid. Onshore at the Senipah area, the large
processing plant is under construction and the big 42-inch
flowlines are being laid crossing major river intersections.

The development of these gas reserves has made Total Indonesie
a major gas producer, set to supply 2,000 mmscfd (million cubic
feet per day) of gas, or more than 75 percent of the feed gas to
the Bontang Liquefaction Plant by the turn of the century.

Given the existing LNG commitments, after the completion of
LNG Train H and the Peciko Field development, Total Indonesie is
expected to be the number one gas producer in the country. This
will enable Indonesia to boost its liquid natural gas (LNG)
exports from the Bontang Liquefaction Plant with an additional
export capacity of about three million metric tons per year,
making Bontang the largest producing LNG plant in the world.