Dutch firm Fugro said it had secured a “significant” marine survey contract from a unit of Japan’s Inpex for the latter’s planned Abadi liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Indonesia.
Under the deal with Inpex Masela, Fugro will perform geophysical and geotechnical surveys needed to support front-end engineering design for offshore production facilities, the submarine pipeline to the onshore LNG terminal, and CO2 injection infrastructure.
Geo-data will be acquired using Fugro’s deepwater autonomous underwater vehicle Echo Surveyor 8 and a robotic seafloor drill, deployed from Indonesian support vessels, according to Fugro.
Fugro expects to start work in the second quarter of 2024.
The firm did not provide the price tag of the contract.
The Inpex-operated project has seen many changes over the years and initially, the development of the Masela offshore block involved a floating LNG plant, while it now includes a 9.5 mtpa onshore LNG plant with an estimated cost of about $20 billion.
Inpex said in December 2023 it had received written approval for the revised plan of development for the Abadi LNG project, which includes a CCS component.
Prior to that, Shell completed the sale in October of its 35 percent stake in Indonesia’s Masela PSC, which includes the planned Abadi LNG project, to Pertamina Hulu Energi and Petronas Masela.
Indonesia’s Pertamina now owns a 20 percent stake and Malaysia’s Petronas has a 15 percent stake in the PSC.
Inpex holds 65 percent operating interest in Masela PSC and is the operator of the Abadi LNG project.