Indonesia's mines and energy minister said on Friday state-owned PT Perusahaan Gas Negara's 540-km gas pipeline from the Corridor Block in South Sumatra to the Caltex field would start operating next month."The pipeline project is already 99 per cent complete at the moment. We expect the gas project will operate officially in the fourth week of August," Kuntoro Mangkusubroto told reporters.
Caltex, jointly owned by US energy giants Chevron Corp and Texaco Inc, currently uses 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude in direct burning for steam flooding to enhance oil recovery from its Duri field. Caltex plans to switch to gas for this process.
A Caltex official said the Duri field, in central Sumatra, currently produces around 290,000 bpd of crude, including the 60,000 bpd used for direct burning.
"The gas from South Sumatra will save about 60,000 barrels per day of crude from Duri field," Kuntoro said.
The pipeline project, which cost $590 million, was designed to flow 300 million cubic feet per dayof natural gas to the Duri field.
The project was financed partly by the Asian Development Bank.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
