Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent

MELBOURNE, Dec. 27 -- Indonesia has approved the Inpex development plan for its Abadi natural gas field on Masela block in the northern Arafura Sea.

The field was discovered in 2000. Six appraisal wells prompted Inpex and partners to report estimated reserves of more than 10 tcf in the field.

Inpex and joint venture partner PT Energi Mega Persada will move into the front-end engineering and design phase of the project.

The plan calls for a floating LNG facility capable of producing 2.5 million tonnes/year of LNG, which is considerably less than the original concept of a unit capable of producing 4.5 million tpy.

Inpex said the project size was reduced to benefit from the technical references available from other similar-sized FLNG projects.

Inpex holds 90% of the Masela block.