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TOTAL/Asia/Indonesia
One and All, bear in mind, inspite of the ensuing embroglio and disaster
of TOTAL's Burma-Thai gas pipeline, TOTAL's expansion in Asia for gas
and energy resources is priority, in China and the SE Pacific, ergo
Indonesia, too. And they say there are big oil resources in East Timor
too...
The hidden gas wells in the heart of the Indonesian jungle
by Bernard Estrade
BALIKPAPAN, Indonesia, May 10 (AFP) - A tangled mass of
brightly coloured pipes hang over the metal beams of a
drill in the heart of the tropical Borneo jungle, a sign of
growing gas exploitation here.
"We arrived here three days ago and we started to drill
immediately. We've just reached 1,000 metres," said Muchon
(Eds: one name), as he watched both the control monitor and
the drill. An engineer with TOTAL-Indonesia, he is one of
several workers busy amid their heavy machinery drilling
gas in the Mahakam delta.
The "Hibiscus," both a barge and a drilling platform, is
one of four powerful machines which drills day and night at
the latest well to be discovered here in Tunu, adding to
the 49 already being exploited.
Discovered in 1977 in the Indonesian province of East
Kalimantan, by prospectors from TOTAL, Tunu is now the most
important of all the French oil company's sites across the
world.
With reserves of nine trillion cubic feet (TCF), it is one
and a half times as important as the Frig oilfield in the
North Sea. Its production, begun in 1990, has gradually
increased and from the equivalent of 200,000 barrels of oil
a day in 1995 is likely to reach 485,000 barrels by 2000.
Stretching 80 kilometers (50 miles) in length and 15
kilometers (nine miles) wide, the find crosses an area
where the limits between the land, the sea and Borneo's
huge Mahakam river blur.
Covered by impenetrable vegetation it can only be reached
by helicopter or by boat, through a labyrinth of waterways
under a burning sun and through hoardes of mosquitos.
On board the "Hibiscus", Muchon and 130 others live and
work in an area roughly the size of three tennis courts.
The teams work all day and all night, stopping only when
the work is complete.
Each day's work costs 100,000 dollars, with the hiring of
the barge itself costing 29,000 dollars a day, according to
Bernard Vitry, the head of TOTAL-Indonesia.
It will take between 40 and 50 days to reach the 5,000
metres (yards) needed for this project.
Each well costs between four and five million dollars.
Tunu has 49 wells now being drilled and is likely to have
some 300 in use by 2000.
Each well drilled is immediately linked to TOTAL's gas
pipelines, more than 150 kilometeres (90 miles) long, which
cross the delta either buried underground or just below the
surface and lead to the Bontang liquefied natural gas
plant.
After it is refined it is shipped away on special
refrigerated ships to Japan and Taiwan, the two most
important clients for TOTAL-Indonesia in Asia, an area with
a growing need for fuel.
"We now have 4,000 people from companies under contract,
including 1,300 from TOTAL-Indonesia working in the Mahakan
delta," Vitry said.
"They are preparing for the future," he added.