Indonesia's state oil and gas
firm Pertamina and its partners could spend between $20 billion
and $40 billion on the offshore Natuna gas field project,
depending on delivery methods and the extent of production, a
senior company official said on Monday.
"We are still discussing with our partners on the scenarios
to develop East Natuna," Muhammad Husen, Pertamina upstream
operation director, said.
The companies could transmit the natural gas via pipelines
or liquefy it for exports, he said. They were also considering
whether to develop the project at Natuna's full capacity, or
split it into several stages.
"The cheapest option would be through pipes, delivering it
to Sumatra, Java or exporting it to Malaysia," Husen said.
In December, Pertamina signed agreements with Exxon Mobil
, Total and Petronas as partners to
develop the Natuna gas field.
"First we want to agree which scenario to take, then we talk
about production level, delivery of LNG," Harun said, adding
that the companies could then ask for government incentives to
develop the project.
The project could take 5-10 years to start production as the
field contains more than double the amount of carbon dioxide
compared with other gas projects under Pertamina, he said.
East Natuna has approximately 46 trillion cubic feet of gas
reserves and contains 71 percent carbon dioxide.
