Page 7 - AsianOil Week 30 2022

AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil

Indian government provides update on

push to boost gas share in energy mix

POLICY THE Indian government has provided an update carried out by the entities authorised by [the]
on efforts to boost the share of natural gas in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board
country’s energy mix. (PNGRB),” said Teli. “The CNG stations and
In a statement, the government said it had set PNG connections are being provided by author-
a target of raising the share of gas in the energy ised entities as per timelines prescribed by
mix to 15% by 2030, from 6.3% currently. Sev- PNGRB from time to time,” he added.
eral initiatives are now underway as the country According to data from the Indian Ministry
works to achieve this goal, according to Indian of Petroleum and Natural Gas, a total of 9.5mn
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, domestic PNG connections and 4,531 CNG
Rameswar Teli. transport stations had been established by the
These include efforts to expand the national government as of May 31, 2022. After comple-
gas grid to around 33,500 km from 21,715 km tion of the 11A CGD round, 295 geographical
currently, while also expanding the city gas areas (GAs) had been authorised to date, which
distribution (CGD) network and raising LNG covers 98% of India’s population and 88% of its
import capacity. gas, according to the ministry.
Other initiatives include plans to allow mar- In the short term, though, India’s natural gas
keting and pricing freedom to gas produced consumption is reported to have fallen as refin-
from high pressure/high temperature areas, ers, power generators and petrochemical com-
deepwater, ultra-deepwater and coal seams. panies cut back on usage owing to high current
“Providing piped natural gas (PNG) con- prices. India’s consumption fell 2.5% year or year
nections and [the] establishment of compressed in the first quarter of the 2023 fiscal year, accord-
natural gas (CNG) stations is part of the devel- ing to Ministry of Petroleum data. Domestic out-
opment of [the] CGD network and the same is put rose 5% y/y at the same time.™

SOUTHEAST ASIA

BPMA confirms spudding of Rencong-

1X well offshore Indonesia

PROJECTS & BADAN Pengelola Migas Aceh (BPMA), the Only a handful of wells has been drilled in
COMPANIES upstream authority of Indonesia’s Aceh Prov- the deeper areas of the basin to date, though,
ince, confirmed on July 28 that Repsol had with none finding commercial volumes of gas.
spudded the Rencong-1X well in waters off the The Andaman Sea has no known oil-generating
province’s coast earlier that month. source rocks, but gas accumulations are present
Repsol Andaman spudded the well on July in the region, and the Timpan-1 discovery has
18 in the Andaman III Working Area, which is raised hopes of further potential nearby.
located in the Malacca Strait in Indonesia’s North Nonetheless, the presence of a good-quality
The West Capella Sumatra Basin. The wildcat well is located in reservoir in the Andaman III block is highly
drillship is being used water depths of 1,100 metres and is being drilled uncertain. But if a commercial discovery is
to drill Rencong-1X. using the West Capella drillship. Drilling of the made, it could help unlock deeper areas of the
well is expected to take 66 days to complete. North Sumatra Basin. And the Indonesian
Rencong-1X was initially due to be drilled in government is hopeful that further discover-
2019, but was delayed, first by a farm-in process ies could help attract more foreign oil and gas
that saw Malaysia’s Petronas take a 49% stake in investment to the country – potentially revers-
the block, and then by the onset of the coronavi- ing a trend whereby international oil majors have
rus (COVID-19) pandemic. Interest in exploring been pulling out.
the region has risen thanks to Harbour Energy’s Once drilling of Rencong-1X has been
Timpan-1 discovery in the adjacent Andaman completed, more will be known about how
II block, which the company has described as a far gas reserves may extend from the Anda-
play-opening well. man II block.™

Week 30 29•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7