Shell eyes another gas treatment project

Alfian, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 06/24/2010 10:42 AM

Shell Global Solutions (Shell GS), an oil and gas upstream technology provider and a subsidy of Royal Dutch Shell Plc., is seeking to double its presence in Indonesia by launching another gas treatment project within the next two years.

Currently, the company has secured a deal to provide gas treatment technology for state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina’s project at the Matindok gas field in Central Sulawesi.

“We expect to double our presence in the next two years. Thus we hope we can secure at least one more project in that period of time,” Shell GS’s business development director Johan Hazejager told The Jakarta Post in an interview Wednesday.

Derek Ritchie, Shell GS’s Asia Pacific upstream technology commercialization and licensing manager, said the company had been in talks with several Indonesian gas project developers.

“There are 10 opportunities we are pursuing now. These [deals] are in different stages,” Ritchie said without giving details of the projects’ owners or locations.

Ritchie said Shell GS provided technology for gas treatment and gas processing. Gas treatment involves the separation of gas from contaminants such as CO2 and sulphur.

Processing involves the various steps in preparing the gas for supply to customers.

“The 10 opportunities are for gas treatment, but we are also looking for opportunities for gas processing in the future,” Ritchie said.

Shell GS sells a sulphur recovery technology called Thiopaq to Pertamina for use in its Matindok project.

The company said seven Thiopaq applications were in commercial operation worldwide and 20 other units were in the start-up, construction, or design phase.

The implementation of the technology in the Matindok field is awaiting government approval for the field’s development plant.

Ritchie declined to mention exact figures on how much Pertamina was spending on the technology, but said Thiopaq usually cost less than 3 percent of the project’s total value.

Pertamina estimated that the Matindok field development would require as much as US$800 million in investment.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Shell GS’s parent company, has also been short listed by Pertamina as one of seven potential partners in developing the gas-rich Natuna D-Alpha block.

In Indonesia, Shell Plc. is better known for its fuel retailing business. Through its local unit, PT Shell Indonesia, the company operates 43 fuel stations.

Shell Indonesia (Shell) plans to open five more petrol stations in Jakarta and Surabaya in East Java within the next few months, the company’s executive said early this month.

Shell public management consultancy manager Esto Sunarso said that three of the stations would be in Jakarta and the other two in Surabaya.

One station will start operating on Jl. Fatmawati, South Jakarta, another two in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, and one on Jl. Ahmad Yani, North Jakarta, this month.

The two Surabaya stations will open on Jl. Mayjen Sungkono and Jl. Ahmad Yani next month, he said.