Page 8 - AsianOil Week 04 2021

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It is believed that both ships had their flags He added that they were “caught red-handed”
lowered while making the STS, which amounts transferring oil and that there was an oil spill
to a violation of international navigation around the receiving tanker MT Freya.
regulations. Claiming a chemical pollution incident,
Iranian Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
said at his daily press conference that Tehran had (IRGC) naval personnel recently seized a
asked Jakarta for the reasoning behind the seizure. South Korean tanker that was heading from
He added that the seizures were over a “a technical Saudi Arabia to its home country. It remains
issue and it happened in a shipping field”. anchored outside Bandar Abbas on Iran’s
“Our Ports Organisation and the ship owner Persian Gulf coast. It is widely believed Teh-
company are looking to find the cause of the ran is using the tanker as leverage in negoti-
issue and to resolve it,” Khatibzadeh told a tele- ations to obtain funds in South Korean bank
vised weekly news conference. accounts which Seoul insists are frozen by
Indonesian Coast Guard spokesman Wisnu US sanctions.
Pramandita said the tankers, seized in waters Two Indonesian merchant sailors were
off Kalimantan Province, would be escorted to among the crew aboard the tanker, the MT
Batam Island in Riau Island Province for further Hankuk Chemi. It is not known whether those
investigation. sailors remain in Iranian custody.
“The tankers, first detected at 5:30 a.m. local On January 6, “officers of the Indonesian
time obscured their identification by not reveal- Embassy in Iran visited the ship and its crew.
ing their flags, and turning off automatic identi- The [Indonesian] crew members were safe”,
fication systems (AIS), and did not respond to a embassy official Judha Nugraha told The
radio calls,” Wisnu said. Jakarta Post.™

Indonesian regulator confirms

NuEnergy’s CBM discovery

PROJECTS & INDONESIAN upstream regulator SKK Migas
COMPANIES has confirmed Australian-listed NuEnergy’s dis-
covery of gas at one of the company’s coal-bed
methane (CBM) projects in south Sumatra.
NuEnergy, which is a unit of Malaysia’s
Globaltec Formation, said on January 21 that
the regulator had both confirmed the discovery
in the Muara Enim production-sharing contract
(PSC) and had green-lit the preparation of a plan
of development (POD) for submission within
three years starting from January 18.
NuEnergy owns a 40% working interest in the
587-square km PSC, which is located close to a
major transmission pipeline owned and oper- Although the confirmation of the discovery
ated by state-owned Pertamina Gas (Pertagas). is good news for the company, NuEnergy has
The developer has drilled two core hole wells, already been waiting almost three years for the
two exploration wells as well as a production test central government to approve a POD for the
and dewatering bore on the licence. Tanjung Enim PSC. The company, which sub-
NuEnergy CEO Ian Wang said: “We are extremely mitted its development plan in April 2018, aims
enthusiastic with the issuance of the acknowledge- to 209 wells across two areas in the north and
ment letter and note its close proximity to NuEnergy’s south of the PSC that cover 33 square km.
other assets in south Sumatra, namely our Muralim Production from the two areas, which are
PSC and the Tanjung Enim PSC.” estimated by the Indonesia Research and Devel-
Wang added: “The company is awaiting the opment Centre for Oil and Gas Technology (LEM-
Tanjung Enim POD approval which shall mark IGAS) to contain confirmed and certified reserves
the first grant of a POD for unconventional gas totalling 164.89bn cubic feet (4.67bn cubic metres),
in Indonesia.” will be exported via a new 24-km pipeline.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 04 28•January•2021