Page 6 - AsianOil Week 24

AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil
Cambodian parliament passes petroleum bill
POLICY
CAMBODIA’S parliament passed into law a long-awaited petroleum bill on June 17 that will manage and promote the local upstream oil and gas industry.
Cambodian Energy Minister Suy Sem said the law was aimed at “managing and developing petroleum resources sustainably and e ectively” for the country’s long-term socio-economic development. Under the bill, work on which began in 1996, developers can apply for explo- ration and development licences that span up to 30 years. e minister added that the new regu- lation should help boost investor con dence in the country’s oil and gas sector.
Cambodia consumes around 2.5m tonnes per year (50,000 barrels per day) of petro- leum, all of which is imported from Singa- pore, Thailand and Vietnam, according to the energy ministry.
e government hopes that foreign energy companies will now be more inclined to follow in Singapore-based independent KrisEnergy’s footsteps. e company has been developing the Apsara oil eld since late 2017, which lies in the o shore Khmer Basin’s Block A.
In November 2018, KrisEnergy said it had granted a $21.7m contract to Keppel Shipyard for the modi cation and upgrading of its pro- duction barge for the development.
Phase 1A of the Apsara development consists of a single unmanned 24-slot wellhead platform that will be connected to the moored barge via a 1.5-km pipeline. Peak production of 8,000 b/d of oil is expected from this phase, while Phase 1B will see development wells connected to three other platform locations.
Block A is slated to begin producing oil this year. Image: KrisEnergy
Sem said that the rst production from Block A, which holds an estimated 400 million barrels of oil reserves, was anticipated in the “near future”, as reported by China’s o cial Xinhua news service.
In February, Canada-listed Angkor Gold revealed that it was interested in entering Cam- bodia’s upstream sector and that it had applied for 7,000 square km of onshore exploration acreage. Sizeable oil and gas reserves have been developed on three sides of Cambodia – in the Gulf of ailand to the west, the Khorat Plateau of ailand to the north and in Vietnam’s Cuu Long Basin in the South China Sea to the south, Angkor CEO Stephen Burega noted at the time.
Headded:“Allofthesevectorsarepointingus towards building out our team and exploring the potential in the area.”™
Indonesia, Inpex agree on Abadi LNG project
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
THE Indonesian government has signed a heads of agreement (HoA) with Japanese developer Inpex on the development of the Abadi lique ed natural gas (LNG) project on the Arafura Sea.
e agreement was signed on June 16 on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of energy and envi- ronment ministers in Karuizawa, Japan. Inpex president Takayuki Ueda said a er the signing that his company intended to submit a devel- opment plan for the project within the coming weeks and was looking to reach a nal invest- ment decision (FID) within three years.
e executive added that the HoA covered estimated costs, the targeted project period as well as nancial conditions. e Abadi project is located in the o shore Masela block.
Indonesian Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan told S&P Global Platts on June 15 that the
project would produce 9.5m tonnes per year (t/y) of LNG for the export market and 150m cubic feet per day (cf/d) (4.25m cm/d) of gas for domestic consumption.
Inpex owns a 65% stake in the project, which carries an estimated price tag of $15bn, while Royal Dutch Shell holds the remaining 35%. While reports emerged in May that Shell was preparing to sell its stake, Ueda said last week that the Anglo-Dutch super-major had not dis- cussed its plans with Inpex.
“We have signed a [HoA] with the Indone- sian government today on behalf of the project partners, a er gaining endorsement from Shell,” he told reporters.
Construction work on the project was sup- posed to have started in 2018, but was delayed after Jakarta directed the consortium to shift
P6
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 24 19•June•2019