Conrad advances seismic, drilling, and farm-in plans for Indonesian assets

August 12, 2025, by Dragana Nikše

Singapore-headquartered natural gas player Conrad Asia Energy has provided operational and resource updates for its two production sharing contracts (PSCs) in Indonesia.

Illustration; Source: Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia

The updates relate to the Offshore North West Aceh (ONWA) PSC (Meulaboh) and the adjacent Offshore South West Aceh (OSWA) (Singkil). Conrad holds 100% interests in both.

The ONWA block, which contains the Meulaboh-1 and Meulaboh East-1 gas discovery wells, covers 9,182 square kilometers, while the OSWA block, containing the Singkel-1 gas accumulation, covers 10,700 square kilometers.

In the first update, Conrad reported having awarded a 3D seismic survey contract for around 500 square kilometers at ONWA to an undisclosed domestic contractor. The seismic program is expected to start in late September or early October 2025, with preliminary interpretations available in Q1 2026.

The area includes three proven gas discoveries and six exploration leads, with historical success rates near 70%. It is situated in a shallow-water (50-80 meters) area. The planned 3D seismic program is hoped to provide greater certainty about the size of the existing discoveries, enabling Conrad to pursue a plan of development and a campaign of further drilling to mature the resource base.

Conrad’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Miltos Xynogalas, commented: “Modern data is expected to better define the existing discoveries, de-risk existing prospectivity and identify new exploration potential. The resource update highlights the potential within the shallow-water of both PSCs and builds a more material gas resource for future project development.”

Additionally, the company said it is in advanced discussions with a potential partner for a minority, non-operated farm-in into the ONWA PSC. Plans are also being developed to drill up to two wells in the PSCs in and around existing shallow-water discoveries and prospects.

The second update relates to the recent evaluation of the shallow-water areas in ONWA and OSWA PSCs. Thanks to reprocessed data, the prospect and lead inventory have been updated. Six leads have been identified within the shallow waters of ONWA PSC, and a further five have been evaluated in OWSA PSC. All these are Upper Miocene carbonate build-ups.

Unrisked P50 prospective resources are now estimated to be 546 billion cubic feet (Bcf), 394 Bcf of which is net attributable to Conrad. This shallow-water prospective resource is described as substantive.

This comes on top of the contingent resources in known discoveries and the unrisked P50 prospective resources of 15 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) previously reported in the deeper water areas in the ONWA and OSWA PSCs.

As for the commercialization strategy, Conrad plans to work with PGN to further advance the small-scale LNG opportunity for the discovered resources at Aceh over the coming months. This way, volumes can be accommodated if the exploration yields discoveries.

Conrad and Pertamina eyeing small-scale LNG options for prospects offshore Indonesia

Research & Development

The company will also continue evaluating options for delivering gas from the existing discoveries for power generation to PLN. In this case, electricity is expected to be connected to the national grid through local substations to meet the demand in the industrial and urban hubs of North Sumatra.

Conrad and PLN are already cooperating on resources from another field offshore Indonesia. Last month, the duo inked a gas sales agreement (GSA), providing for all the gas produced from the Mako gas field to be supplied for domestic use.