Armada Akia (ABV), a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Bumi Armada, and Pexco Tarakan have inked a production sharing contract (PSC) with the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources for an exploration block in the Tarakan Basin, North Kalimantan Province. The Malaysian player will be tasked with providing a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel and a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) unit or gas pipeline for a potential development on this block.
According to Bumi Armada, its subsidiary, Armada Akia, is the operator with 51% participating interest in the Akia exploration block while its co-bidder, Pexco Tarakan, holds the remaining 49% interest. The Akia PSC covers an area of 8,394 square kilometers and contains the Aster and Tulip oil and gas discoveries.
The Tulip discovery has an estimated recoverable resource of 860 bcf of gas and 60 million boe of oil and condensate. Bumi Armada underlines that development plans entail the acquisition of new 3D seismic over the Tulip discovery to evaluate the potential for a fast-track development.
As the water depth at the Tulip discovery is 800 meters, Bumi Armada will provide and operate an FPSO and an FLNG or gas pipeline for the development of this project, which will leverage the Malaysian player’s core expertise of providing and operating floating production systems.
Bumi Armada has recently inked a non-binding agreement with PT Pertamina International Shipping, a shipping and marine logistics arm of Pertamina, and PT Davenergy Mulia Perkasa (DMP), an Indonesian natural gas trading company. This enables the trio to pool resources for the development and commercialization of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from multiple fields in Indonesia.
As a result, Bumi Armada and Pertamina International Shipping are expected to design, engineer, construct, install, commission, hook up, and operate an FLNG facility, along with an LNG carrier to transport LNG to consumers that do not have clean energy sources nearby.