South Sumatra has demonstrated resilience in developing its petroleum resources for over a century of commercial production. Although a mature basin, enhanced secondary production operations and innovative exploration have maintained South Sumatra as an integral part of Indonesia’s oil and gas industry. Strong commodity prices, an extensive network of pipelines, and an undersupplied domestic market continue to make South Sumatra a commercially attractive region for current production and further innovative exploration. This setting now supports the exploitation of previously overlooked low density (and low risk) shallow biogenic gas in proximity to underutilized gas pipelines and expanding gas markets.

The Lebong region adjacent to Palembang is an excellent example of the typical belowground Sumatra setting of this biogenic gas resource - likely more commonly present throughout the South Sumatra region than is currently recognized. Surprisingly good deliverability from limited historic production in the Lebong region, and material reserves from ubiquitous stacked shallow gas pay adjacent to actively utilized infrastructure highlights the commercial viability of this biogenic gas play, making this emerging play type a strong candidate to contribute to the GOI vision of increasing gas production to 12 Bcf/d by 2030.