State upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas and state oil and gas firm Pertamina officially began operations of the company’s first Floating Storage and Off-loading (FSO) ship.
“This Abherka ship is historic because it’s the first project of Pertamina shipping that converted a tanker into a FSO,” Karen Agustiawan, Pertamina president director said at the ship’s launch off the western coast of Madura in East Java.
Pertamina’s new FSO ship has a capacity of 600,000 barrels of oil per day, and will transport oil from the West Madura Offshore Block. An FSO is essentially a platform for processing hydrocarbons received from nearby sources, where they are processed and stored until they can be off-loaded onto a tanker.
The Western Madura Offshore block has 77 wells and is operated by Pertamina Hulu Energi West Madura Offshore (PHE WMO).
“This ship was previously a tanker that was later converted into an FSO at the COSCO shipyard in Guandong, China for 10 months,” Karen told Antara.
BP Migas chief R. Priyono said at the launch that the completion of the FSO has helped the country move closer to become an autonomous energy producer, or what Priyono called “Indonesia Incorporated,” according to reporting from Antara.
Priyono said that the ship had facilities to accommodate 150 workers, and the vessel will operate for 10 years at the offshore block without docking.
“[With] the operation of this FSO, we hope to minimize unscheduled down time in the operation area,” Priyono said.
The block is currently targeting a production of 20,000 barrels of oil per day and 166.4 million cubic feet per day of gas.
The gas produced is channeled to state utility firm PLN, PGN, Gresik Migas and fuel tank producer and fuel distributor Media Karya Sentosa, therefore indirectly providing a guarantee of gas supply for power generation and industrial needs in East Java.