BLBG:Chevron Plans Bangka Gas Decision in 2013, Regulator Says
Chevron Corp. (CVX) plans to make a final investment decision on its offshore Bangka gas field in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province in 2013, according to BPMigas, the nation’s oil and gas regulator.
Chevron will need to sign contracts with BPMigas including natural gas sales accords and an extension of a production sharing contract in the Makassar Straits before making its final investment decision, BPMigas Chairman R. Priyono said in a statement posted on the regulator’s website today. Gareth Johnstone, a spokesman for Chevron in Singapore, did not immediately comment when contacted by e-mail and phone today. The company is “continuing to advance” the Bangka project through its design phase, Chevron said Dec. 21.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest crude producer, is struggling to stem a decline in output from aging oil and gas fields that led to the country withdrawing from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2008.
“The project can’t be delayed because it is very strategic,” said Priyono. “A one-day delay could cause a loss of tens of billions rupiah for the government.”
Bangka, which is one of three sections of Chevron’s deep sea natural gas project off East Kalimantan, may start production in 2015, the regulator said in a Dec. 16 presentation. The field is expected to have peak production of 110 million cubic feet a day, Gde Pradnyana, a BPMigas spokesman, said Dec. 21.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fitri Wulandari in Jakarta at fwulandari@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
