Conrad Asia Energy Ltd (ASX: CRD) has confirmed continued progress on its flagship Mako Gas Project in the West Natuna Sea, with several critical construction milestones completed across its four major workstreams in recent weeks.
The most significant development involves the donor jack-up rig destined to become the project’s Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU).
The rig, Valaris 104, has cleared a major logistical hurdle after being successfully wet-towed through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest and most sensitive maritime chokepoints.
The vessel is now loaded and transiting onward to the PaxOcean Yard in Batam, Indonesia, where fabrication work is expected to begin before the end of September.
Alongside the MOPU conversion, the project’s other core workstreams are also progressing on schedule.
Contracts covering the drilling rig, Conductor Support Frame and subsea infrastructure continue to advance, with steel fabrication and site works already underway at multiple locations.
Procurement has reached a key threshold, with 90 per cent of the project’s US$320 million capital contracts now under signed contract or letter of award.
To manage this expanding scope of work, the company’s subsidiary West Natuna Exploration Ltd is continuing to build out its Jakarta and site-based teams, with a focus on maintaining cost control, quality standards and schedule discipline as construction activity intensifies.
Equipment procurement has also hit an important benchmark, with key compression equipment successfully completing Factory Acceptance Testing in Germany.
Shipment of the equipment to Batam is slated for early in the fourth quarter of 2026, aligning with the broader construction timeline across the project’s fabrication sites.
Despite the scale and complexity of coordinating equipment and personnel across multiple countries, Conrad reports that the Mako Gas Project remains on budget and on track to deliver first gas in the fourth quarter of 2027.
Executive Chairman Peter Botten highlighted the operational significance of the rig’s transit through a geopolitically sensitive region.
“The successful and safe transport of the donor rig for the MOPU through the Strait of Hormuz under difficult operational conditions is a credit to our team and our contractors, who have done an outstanding job.”
Construction activity is expected to accelerate further in the coming months as components sourced from around the world converge on Indonesia for final assembly ahead of the project’s planned 2027 start-up.
The Mako Gas Project is positioned to supply an area experiencing rapid growth in energy demand.
Batam, increasingly recognised as part of the wider Singapore-Johor-Riau corridor, is emerging as a significant hub for data centre development, a sector for which consistent and reliable power supply is a critical requirement.
Botner noted the strategic importance of this positioning: “Batam, now referred to as part of the Singapore-Johor-Riau corridor, is emerging as a major data centre hub, with reliable power a key constraint to the area’s growth.”
With procurement largely locked in, fabrication underway across several workstreams and key equipment already tested and ready for shipment, Conrad appears to be entering a more intensive phase of physical construction.
The company’s next updates are likely to focus on fabrication progress at the Batam yard and further contract finalisation as the project moves closer to its 2027 first gas target.