Fugro wins marine survey contract on Inpex's Abadi LNG project

Inpex Masela, a subsidiary of Japan’s Inpex Corporation, has awarded Fugro a marine survey contract for the Abadi LNG project in Indonesia, Fugro said on March 5.

Under this contract, Fugro will conduct geophysical and geotechnical surveys essential for supporting the front-end engineering design of offshore production facilities, the submarine pipeline leading to the onshore LNG terminal, and the CO2 injection infrastructure.

The geo-data acquisition will utilise Fugro’s deepwater autonomous underwater vehicle, the Echo Surveyor 8, along with a robotic seafloor drill. These technologies will be deployed from Indonesian support vessels, with fieldwork expected to commence in the second quarter of 2024.

The Abadi LNG project, a collaborative effort between Inpex, Pertamina Hulu Energi, and Petronas in the Masela block, is built upon an onshore LNG development scheme. Anticipated to produce approximately 9.5mn tonnes/year of LNG, this output is equivalent to over 10% of Japan's annual LNG consumption, according to Inpex.

In December last year, Inpex received approval from the Indonesian government for the revised plan of development (POD) for the Abadi LNG project. This revised plan marks a step forward for the project, as it incorporates a carbon capture and storage (CCS) component, a first for Indonesia's production sharing contract (PSC) scheme.

Inpex submitted the revised POD in April 2023, aiming to integrate CCS technology into the existing plan. The Indonesian authorities' approval officially greenlights the project's progress with CCS.