Conrad’s revised plan for Indonesian gas field development gets govt approval

Conrad Asia Energy has received written approval from the Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources for the Plan of Development (POD) Revision for the Mako gas field located offshore Indonesia.

West Natuna Exploration Ltd (WNEL) is the operator of the Mako gas field, located in the Duyung PSC, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Conrad.

Conrad holds a 76.5 per cent participating interest in the Duyung PSC along with Coro Energy with a 15 per cent participating interest and Empyrean Energy with an 8.5 per cent participating interest.

According to Conrad, the approved POD reflects a 458 per cent increase in Contingent Resources (and significant increase in gas production offtake rate) following a successful 2019 drilling campaign and amends the initial POD which was approved in 2018.

The company emphasised that the award of the revised POD represents a material event in progressing the Mako project and is a significant milestone on the critical path to developing this significant resource, which is currently the largest undeveloped gas field in South Natuna Sea.

The revised POD is based on field Contingent Resources of 297 billion cubic feet (net attributable to Joint Venture) and daily production of 120 mmscfd.

At present, there is no infrastructure to transmit gas from the Mako field to domestic markets in Indonesia, and hence the POD approves the export of production to Singapore which is already connected to the West Natuna Gas Transportation System, until and unless such evacuation routes to Indonesia are built, at which point up to 25 per cent of production may be allocated for domestic sale. The existing underutilised gas pipeline to Singapore expedites the development of Mako where Conrad expects to start producing gas during 2025.

Conrad Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Miltos Xynogalas, commented: “The next key milestone in the development of Mako is the finalisation of a gas sales agreement, with a buyer (or buyers) in Singapore. With recoverable gas volumes and daily production now formally approved within the POD Revision, we anticipate, and look forward to working with the government of Indonesia, in completing gas sales agreement negotiations at the earliest opportunity.”