Page 11 - AsianOil Week 01 2023

AsianOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AsianOil

Indonesia moves forward with $3bn

Tuna field development

INDONESIA THE Indonesian government has approved a 2027 and begin to deliver natural gas to Vietnam
$3.07bn development plan for its offshore Tuna by subsea pipeline in 2026.
Tuna is located South gas field put forward by London-based Harbour SKK Migas Chairman Dwi Soetjipto said that
China Sea. Energy. SKK Migas, Indonesia’s regulator for besides the economic benefits development of
upstream oil and gas investments, announced at Tuna would bring, it would also establish Indo-
the start of the year that the project would go for- nesia’s maritime entitlements, the Reuters report
ward and in doing so would affirm the country’s said.
offshore exclusive economic zone (EEZ), accord- “There will be activity in the border area,
ing to a report from Reuters. which is one of the world’s geopolitical hot
The Tuna project is located in the South spots,” he said, adding: “The Indonesian navy
China Sea near the maritime border between will also participate in securing the upstream oil
Indonesia and Vietnam, in a region where China and gas projects so that economically and polit-
claims sovereignty within a ‘nine dash zone’ that ically, it becomes an affirmation of Indonesia’s
has put it at geopolitical odds with all of the sovereignty.”
counties in the region with a littoral coast on the China has gone to great lengths in an effort to
South China Sea, including Indonesia, Vietnam, control the South China Sea by enlarging islands
the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. and building an airbase in the Spratly Islands and
The Tuna field in located near the Natuna establishing a presence on the Paracel Islands.
Islands, an area that Indonesia and China are The region has been in dispute since the 1970s
in dispute over, despite being within Indonesia’s and China has frequently used its navy to force
200-nautical mile EEZ as specified by the UN vessels from nearby countries out of the area.
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Chinese and Indonesian naval vessels have
The field was discovered by Harbour (then Pre- shadowed each other in the region and Beijing
mier Oil) in 2014 and the resource is estimated at has insisted that Jakarta halt its activities in the
100mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe). area. The decision to move ahead with the devel-
According to the development plan, Harbour opment of Tuna could possibly cause further
Energy intends to produce 115mn cubic feet disputes between the two countries and cause
(3.26mn cubic metres) per day from the field by further tension throughout the region. ™

Week 01 06•January•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P11