Premier to Pipe Indonesian Gas to Vietnam (Adds Quotes from Premier)

UK producer Premier Oil has signed a memorandum of understanding with Petrovietnam to sell gas from its Tuna block offshore Indonesia, the Indonesian oil and gas regulator said November 14.

The MoU was inked November 10, on the sidelines of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Da Nang in Vietnam, by Premier Oil CEO Tony Durrant and Petrovietnam CEO Nguyen Vu Truong Son in the presence of Indonesian regulator SKK Migas chief Amien Sunaryadi.

Premier Oil, as operator of the Tuna block will develop the block with a target to flow first gas in 2023. Premier has a 65% participating interest in the block with Japan’s Moeco having 20% interest and Korean GS Energy having the remaining 15%. The gas produced from the Tuna block will be fed into to the Nam Con Son pipeline system in Vietnam via a cross-border pipe being built, SKKMigas said.

The block was discovered in 2014 and has a reserve of about 616bn ft³ and 20mn barrels of oil, according to Petrovietnam.

Update November 16: Premier Oil added in its 3Q trading and operations update that in Indonesia, its BIGP development project in Natuna Sea Block A is proceeding well, and that the Indonesian Government formally approved the project in October and all major contracts have now been awarded. Premier is targeting first gas in 2019 to backfill our existing Singapore and domestic market contracts.

It also stated that, on November 10, Petrovietnam, Premier and SKK Migas (on behalf of the Indonesian government) entered into a memorandum of understanding for future gas sales from the Tuna Field in Indonesia into Vietnam. "This represents a significant step forward in the potential development of the field envisaging using a new cross-border pipeline to connect the Tuna area to the existing Nam Con Son Pipeline system in Vietnam; further appraisal in the area is planned for 2019," said Premier. Its CEO Tony Durrant added: "The agreement to export Tuna gas to Vietnam, signed last week, adds to Premier's significant backlog of future growth opportunities." 

Existing Premier Oil assets in the region, including Tuna offshore Indonesia (Map credit: Premier Oil, February 2016)

Shardul Sharma