Acting Chairman of SKK MIGAS Officially Launches FPSO Ratu Nusantara
The development of Bukit Tua Field oil and gas project, Ketapang Block located in northern sea of Madura, East Java has reached 65 percent until early October 2014. One of this project’s advanced developments is floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) whose name was officially launched at the Keppel Shipyard, Singapore, Tuesday (21/10).
The FPSO with 233 meters in length, 43 meters in width and 20 meters in height was named Ratu Nusantara, which represents the partnership between Indonesia and Malaysia in Nusantara Islands. The inauguration was attended by Acting Chairman of Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas), J. Widjonarko, Top Leader of the State of Sabah YAB Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman, and Country Chairman of Petronas Carigali Indonesia, Hazli Sham B Kassim.
"Hopefully Bukit Tua can start the production in April 2015," Widjonarko said. As a projection, the initial production of this field is 5,000 barrels of oil per day and 20 million cubic feet of gas per day. The production will be increasing gradually until the peak of 20,000 barrels of oil per day and 60 million cubic feet of gas per day.
The gas production is allocated for domestic buyer, PT. Petrogas Jatim Utama, for the demand of Gresik’s gas and steam power plants. On last Friday (17/10), an amendment to gas sale and purchase agreement was signed between contractors of production sharing contract, Ketapang and Petrogas. "From this amendment, the state revenue is expected to increase $ 105 million or Rp 1.2 trillion," Widjonarko stated.
Ratu Nusantara has a processing facility of 25 thousand barrels of oil per day and 77 million cubic feet of gas per day, as well as 20 thousand barrels of water per day. This vessel is also designed to store up to 630 thousand barrels of oil processed. Later, the oil produced will be distributed to buyer tankers. Ratu Nusantara is a Scorpius tanker vessel assembled in 1994 which belongs to Keppel Corporation and was taken over in the last quarter of 2013. It took about 16 months to convert the tanker ship into a FPSO.
Petronas Carigali Ketapang Ltd., as the operator of Bukit Tua Field, has a cooperation contract to lease FPSO with PT. M3 Ketapang Sejahtera, a consortium company between M3nergy from Malaysia and PT Transamudra Usaha Sejahtera from Indonesia. This contract is valid for 5 years extendable to two periods of one year each.
Head of SKK Migas Public Relations, Rudianto Rimbono explained that in compliance with the cabotage principles applicable in Indonesia, this vessel has been flagged of Indonesia. "To fulfill the local content, the topside facilities are fabricated in Batam," Rudianto said.
Hazli added, Petronas is committed to develop oil and gas working areas operated in Indonesia. "We are conducting further studies to identify the potentials of field development in the Ketapang block which may later use the FPSO Ratu Nusantara in order to maximize the capacity of its usage," he said.
Eighty (80) percent interest of Ketapang Block is owned by Petronas and the remaining is owned by PT Saka Ketapang Perdana. Bukit Tua Field is located in the Java Sea, 35 miles in the north of Madura Island and approximately 110 kilometers northeast of the city of Gresik, East Java. Initially, this field is operated by Conoco Philips in partnership with Petronas. Since 25 July 2008, this field has been fully operated by Petronas.