Working On Carbon Storage Business, Pertamina D ExxonMobil Plans To Drill Sunda Asri Basin This Year

Deputy President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero) Wiko Migantoro (photo: Doc: Maria Trisnawati/voi.id)

JAKARTA - PT Pertamina (Persero) together with ExxonMobil Indonesia plan to drill the Sunda Asri Basin as a storage area for Carbon Capture Storage (CCS).

Pertamina's Deputy President Director, Wiko Migantoro, said that the plan is for the appraisal well drilling to be carried out by the end of this year.

"It is hoped that by the end of this year or early next year we will have an appraisal well drill. From there, there will be another milestone, we can calculate how much it actually costs for CCS, including its total investment," said Wiko to the media in Bojonegoro, quoted on Saturday, March 2.

Wiko said that it is important to drill appraisal wells to prove that the reservoir of these targets is in accordance with storage needs. For this reason, Pertamina has begun to make preparations to procure the tools needed in this drilling.

Wiko also said that at this time Pertamina and ExxonMobil were still waiting for the derivative rules of Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 14 of 2024 concerning the Implementation of Carbon Arrest and Storage Activities.

Previously, after the Presidential Decree regarding the CCS implementation regulations was issued, his party and Exxon prepared the Sunda Asri Basin as candidates for carbon sequestration wells.

"Until now, we are still waiting for the derivative of the regulation from the Presidential Decree. Mr. Director General, we have coordinated with ESDM, maybe in early June the derivatives have been published," added Wiko.

While waiting for derivative regulations, he said, his party together with ExxonMobil prepared the concept of cooperation.

"We made a concept of two, yes, whether the current PSC (Production Sharing Contract) amendment, or later the new contract that was said to be injection sharing or whether we don't know what it looks like," he explained.

Wiko said that one of the potential requests from CCS Sunda Asri is the Green Petrochemical Refinery which is being worked on by ExxonMobil.

"There could be potential demand. We'll still map it later. FID (Final Investment Decision) is expected to be in early 2026, everything will be small in terms of appraisal, demand, storage capacity," concluded Wiko.