Malaysia’s Genting Oil and Gas has started the ball rolling for the engineering, procurement and construction tender for the first phase of its Covid-delayed Asap, Kido and Merah (AKM) gas fields development onshore Indonesia.

Genting is eyeing an early production facility (EPF) to initially exploit gas from the AKM fields on its 100%-held Kasuri production sharing contract in the remote West Papua province that is also home to the BP-operated Tangguh liquefied natural gas project.

Genting is seeking contractors which have developed onshore oil and gas facilities in remote areas such as eastern Indonesia and that have experience of installing corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) pipelines on land — both within the past 15 years.

Indonesian local and national companies can bid individually for the EPC workscope, which has a minimum local content (TKDN) of 50%, as can a consortium that could potentially include a foreign partner — although an overseas player cannot lead the joint venture.

Registration for the prequalification process runs until Friday 11 August and Genting on 15 August will hold a pre-prequalification meeting for prospective bidders. The prequalification documents are due for submission by 29 August if sent via email, or by 2pm local time on 30 August if delivered in a sealed envelope to the auction committee at Genting’s Jakarta office.

FLNG on the cards

Looking to the future, Genting envisages a potential floating liquefied natural gas project for the full field development of AKM’s giant gas reserves. The Indonesian authorities earlier this year approved a Plan of Development that left the operator free to progress into front-end engineering and design for a potential FLNG project.

Genting in February confirmed this revised PoD involves 230 million cubic feet per day of gas from the AKM fields and Steenkool formation being exploited via a shallow-water FLNG project for 18 years, as well as the supply of more than 100 MMcfd of gas to an ammonia and urea (amurea) plant to be built in West Papua.

The revised PoD is based on using 2.674 trillion cubic feet of gas initially in place (GIIP) versus the 1.735 Tcf of GIIP in the Roabiba formation in the AKM fields that formed the basis of the 2018 original Plan of Development.

Indonesian contractor Tiga Inti Pilar had earlier performed a FEED study for the AKM asset based on Genting's original PoD.

The 2011 Asap discovery encountered gas in three separate intervals and flowed at a rate of 100 MMcfd of gas during testing. The Merah gas discovery followed two years later and in 2014 two additional wells were drilled on the Kasuri PSC — one in the southern fault block of the Asap field and another on the Kido field.

Genting, at the time of the original PoD, described the Steenkool formation — which was discovered and tested when the company drilled its Kido Shallow 1X well — as “exciting”, and seismic data were reprocessed to identify more prospects in that formation.

The operator estimated that the Steenkool formation alone could contribute additional 1 Tcf to 2 Tcf of gas resources to its Kasuri onshore asset.

Genting’s current 30-year Kasuri PSC is due to expire in 2038 but the Indonesian authorities have said the operator can apply for an extension, depending on the economic life of the project, provided it complies with the applicable regulations.

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