Eni Achieves First Gas at Merakes

Italy’s Eni has achieved first gas at its Merakes deepwater project, which will partly backfill Indonesia’s maturing Bontang LNG plant. Gas from Merakes will help feed the 22.5 million ton/yr Bontang LNG plant which has been operating only two trains -- Train E and H -- out of eight due to depleting gas feedstock (LNGI Jan.20'21). Gas from Merakes will also be partially sold to the domestic market. Merakes is designed to produce 450 MMcf/d of gas from five deepwater wells drilled at a water depth of 1,500 meters. The field has been connected to the Jangkrik floating production unit. The Merakes gas field is located in the Kutei Basin in the East Sepinggan Block offshore East Kalimantan. Merakes is one of the four projects that Eni was expecting to bring on line this year. The other projects are Cabaca North in Angola, Area 1 Full Field in Mexico, and Fenja in Norway. Eni is one of the last international energy companies with an upstream presence in Indonesia after Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron divested most -- if not all -- of their assets. The European major is even looking at expanding its footprint in the country as it finalizes an agreement to take over operatorship of Chevron’s Indonesian Deepwater Development gas project (LNGI Jan.27'20).