The Jakarta Post | April 26, 2012 |
A vessel that will be converted into a floating storage and off loading (FSO) unit for the Cepu oil and gas block in East Java has arrived in Singapore’s Sembawang shipyard, paving the way to begin commercial operations in May 2014.
The conversion process for the vessel, named MT Chios, will commence after its official inauguration on April 14 following its arrival in Singapore on March 22, said Rudi Rubiandini, the operational deputy of upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas.
The conversion process will include cleaning up the cargo, ballast and slop tanks. Installation of platforms in the cargo tanks will follow, and, afterward, a detailed survey will be done. As a last step, all unused machines and pipes will be taken off.
The MT Chios vessel is a very-large crude carrier (VLCC) with a total capacity of 320,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt), able to store up to 1.7 million barrels. It was made in 1993 by Hyundai Heavy Industries with a length almost twice that of a football field at 327 meters.
“After being converted, the vessel’s name will be changed to Gagak Rimang,” Rudi told reporters on Tuesday.
“We hope the renovation of the vessel can be completed in January 2014 and therefore can be commercially operated by May that year,” he added.
Indonesia’s dwindling oil output has posed challenges to increasing the production capacity of its blocks, with Cepu being the potential top-contributing block for the government’s ambition to reach a million barrels of oil production per day (bpd) versus 930,000 bpd at present.
The Cepu block, which is operated by US-based ExxonMobil’s subsidiary Mobil Cepu Limited, is expected to begin producing 165,000 bpd starting July 2014, compared with the current 20,000 and 22,000 bpd using early production facilities.
Mobil Cepu and PT Pertamina EP hold a respective 45 percent stake in the Cepu block, while the remaining 10 percent is owned by regional administration-owned enterprises of Central Java; Bojonegoro, East Java; Blora, Central Java; and East Java.
Development of the block is divided into five engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects, of which four are included in the FSO. The FSO project has been awarded to PT Scorpa Pranedya and Sembawang Shipyard with a total value of US$298.7 million.
The five EPC projects, which have contracts valued at more than a billion US dollars, are estimated to be completed in 36 months, with the ground-breaking for the first project having been conducted in December last year.
—JP/Rangga D. Fadillah
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/04/18/floating-production-facility-cepu-ready-construction.html
No comments:
Post a Comment