Inpex Targets Abadi LNG Launch In Late 2020s

Japan’s Inpex has said it expects to launch production at its 9.5mn mt/yr Abadi LNG terminal in Indonesia in the late 2020s.

In a July 16 statement, Inpex said the government’s recent approval of its revised plan of development (PoD) for the project represented a “significant milestone”.

“Inpex aims to make this project competitive and will continue to work toward the production start-up scheduled in the latter half of the 2020s,” company CEO Takayuki Ueda said.

The proposed plant aims to exploit gas at the Abadi field, located in the Masela block in the Arafura Sea off Indonesia. Inpex serves as the project’s operator with a 65% stake, while its partner Shell has 35%. Inpex filed its original development plans in 2015, but the project was delayed after the Indonesian government demanded that the plant be built onshore rather than the developers’ preferred option of offshore.

Inpex’s next move will be to conduct environmental and engineering studies, in preparation for taking a final investment decision (FID), according to its statement.

“For Indonesia, making progress on Abadi is critical. Domestic LNG demand is expected to rise to 13mn mt/yr by 2030 as gas demand grows and production declines,” Edinburgh-based Wood Mackenzie said in a research note. “Abadi is also crucial to the next phase of growth for Inpex, post-Ichthys. At peak, we estimate Abadi to contribute 180,000 boepd – based on working interest – towards Inpex’s ambitious long-term production target of 1mn barrels of oil equivalent/day.”