UK-based energy giant BP is close to launching the third liquefaction train at the Tangguh LNG facility in Indonesia, according to the company’s CEO Bernard Looney.
Operator BP and its partners are expanding the 7.6 mtpa facility in Papua Barat province with the addition of the third liquefaction train with a capacity of 3.8 mtpa.
The firm and the Chiyoda-Saipem-Tripatra-Suluh Ardhi Engineering (CSTS) consortium, the project’s EPC contractor, originally expected to launch the expansion project in the third quarter of 2020.
However, BP delayed the launch of the project several times.
“Construction and commissioning of the project have been completed, and start-up is now in progress at the facility,” Looney said on Tuesday during BP’s second-quarter results call.
He said that this is an “important delivery milestone”, contributing to BP’s target of 200 mboed high-margin production from new major projects by 2025 and the company’s LNG supply target of 25 mtpa by 2025.
20-year extension
In December 2022, BP and its partners also secured a 20-year extension for the Tangguh production sharing contract.
Under the deal signed with the Indonesian government, the Tangguh PSC, which consists of the Berau, Muturi, and Wiriagar PSCs, will be extended from 2035 to 2055.
Tangguh is the largest gas producing field in Indonesia, accounting for around 20 percent of the country’s gas output, and supplies feed gas to the Tangguh LNG plant in Papua Barat province, which began operations in 2009.
Its production reaches 1.4 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day of gas through two LNG trains and will reach 2.1 Bcf per day once the third train comes online, according to BP.
BP Berau and its affiliates in Indonesia hold a 40.22 percent interest in the Tangguh project.
Other Tangguh production sharing contract partners are MI Berau, CNOOC Muturi, Nippon Oil Exploration, KG Berau Petroleum, Indonesia Natural Gas Resources Muturi, and KG Wiriagar Petroleum.
Besides the expansion, BP is also working on a carbon capture utilization and storage project at the facility.