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Australian energy firm Santos’s Wortel natural gas field off Indonesia’s Madura island is set to begin production by the end the month, Indonesian oil and gas regulator BPMigas said on Friday.

The field in the offshore Sampang Block in East Java will produce 50 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas for domestic consumption, said BPMigas project deputy Hardiono.

Some 60 percent of the field’s production will be supplied to private electricity company Indonesia Power while the rest will be bought by regional government-controlled companies.

Indonesia, the world’s third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, has been struggling to keep up with rapidly increasing domestic gas demand.

The additional supply from Wortel field will ramp up Santos’s total production off Madura island to 210 mmscfd.

Santos also produces 110 mmscfd from its Maleo field and 50 mmscfd from its Oyong field, Hardiono said.

BPMigas also said that rig maintenance last month in Maleo field was successfully completed without shutting down the facility.

Maleo field has been supplying gas to state gas distributor Perusahaan Gas Negara and Oyong fuel to the Grati power plant, operated by state electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara.

In November, PGN agreed to more than double the price it pays for gas from Santos to $5 per million British thermal units (mmbtu), up from $2.14 per mmbtu.

The Wortel gas field in Madura is just one of many oil and gas blocks in Indonesia. Other gas blocks include the Peciko Phase 7B well in Mahakam on Kalimantan, which is operated by Total E&P of France; Chevron Oil Pacific Indonesia’s Hari 2 well in South Jambi; and a field in Tiaka operated jointly by Indonesia’s Pertamina and Medco Energi. 

Reuters, JG