KONTAN.CO.ID - MILAN, April 20 - Eni has made a major gas discovery in the Ganal block offshore Indonesia, the Italian oil and gas group said on Monday in a statement.

Preliminary estimates indicate volume of 5 trillion cubic feet of gas and 300 million barrels of condensate.

The discovery was made by the Geliga-1 exploration well at a depth of around 5,100 metres in a water depth of about 2,000 metres, Eni said in the statement.

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Analyses are ongoing to evaluate accelerated development options, considering the proximity to existing and planned infrastructure, which offers potential synergies in time-to-market and cost optimisation, it said.

The new discovery is adjacent to the Gula gas discovery which has estimated volume of 2 Tcf.

Indonesia's energy minister Bahlil Lahadalia said he has formed a special team to help accelerate development of the projects and targets production to start in 2028.

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The discovery could help increase Eni's Indonesian gas production to 2,000 million standard cubic feet per day in 2028, from around 700 million standard cubic feet per day currently, the minister said.

Eni has been present in Indonesia since 2001 and holds a diversified upstream portfolio across exploration, development and production activities.