Natuna Sea bathymetry and seismic location map

The East Natuna gas field (former name: Natuna D-Alpha block) is a large

natural gas field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the prese ...

located in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

off northern Natuna Island, Indonesia. It is within the disagreed area claimed by China.

History

The field was discovered in 1973 by

Agip Agip S.p.A., acronym for Azienda generale italiana petroli, was an Italian automotive gasoline, Diesel fuel, diesel, Liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, lubricants, fuel oil, and bitumen retailer established in 1926 and Subsidiary company, subsidiary ...

. In 1980, the Indonesian state-owned oil company

Pertamina PT Pertamina (Persero) is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation, headquartered in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of ''Pertamin'' (established 1961) and ''Permina'' (established in 1957). In 2020, the ...

and

Exxon Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was form ...

formed a joint venture to develop Natuna D-Alpha. However, due to the high content the partnership was not able to start production. In 1995, the Indonesian government signed a contract with Exxon but in 2007, the contract was terminated. In 2008, the block was awarded to Pertamina. The new agreement was signed between Pertamina and

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

in 2010. Correspondingly, the field was renamed East Natuna to be geographically more precise. In 2011, the principal of agreement was signed between Pertamina, ExxonMobil,

Total S.A. TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and is one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas explorat ...

and

Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad, commonly known as PETRONAS (stylised in all caps), is a Malaysian Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. Established in 1974, it is a lega ...

. In 2012, Petronas was replaced by

PTT Exploration and Production PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (), also known as PTTEP, is a national petroleum exploration and production company based in Thailand. It is a subsidiary of the state-owned PTT Public Company Limited PTT Public Company L ...

. As of 2016, negotiations about the new principal of agreement have not finalized and consequently, a production sharing contract is not signed.

Reserves and development

The East Natuna gas field is located in the Greater Sarawak Basin (East Natuna Basin) about north of

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

and northeast of the Natuna Islands covering approximately . The reservoir is at a water depth of within the Miocene Terumbu Formation with a crest at subsea. A maximum

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

height is . The thickness of the formation varies between . The estimated resource in place of the East Natuna field is around , of which total

proven reserves Proven reserves (also called measured reserves, 1P, and reserves) is a measure of fossil fuel energy reserves, such as oil and gas reserves and coal reserves. It is defined as the "quantity of energy sources estimated with reasonable certaint ...

of natural gas are , and production is forecast to be around . The content of the resource is about 71%. The development of East Natuna is expected to cost US$20–40 billion. To save costs, the joint development of East Natuna, Tuna block (

Premier Oil Premier Oil plc was an independent UK oil company with gas and oil interests in the United Kingdom, Asia, Africa and Mexico. It was devoted entirely to the 'upstream' sector of the industry — the exploitation of oil and gas — as opposed to th ...

65%,

Mitsui Oil Exploration (MOECO) is an oil exploration subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. that specializes in natural gas. It has its headquarters in the Hibiya Central Building in Nishi-Shinbashi, Minato, Tokyo. It was one of 17 Mitsui companies that were spun off on July 1 ...

35%), and South Natuna Sea Block B (

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in t ...

40%, Inpex 35%, Chevron Corporation 25%) has been proposed. Production is expected to be viable only if the oil price exceeds $100 per barrel. The production is expected to start not before 2030.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:East Natuna Gas Field Natural gas fields in Indonesia Natuna Regency South China Sea