TOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Japanese oil and gas explorer

Inpex Corp ( IPXHF ) said on Wednesday it has awarded additional

contracts for early-stage design work on its $20 billion Abadi

liquefied natural gas project in Indonesia's Masela block.

In April, the firm launched a front-end engineering design

(FEED) process to assess technical details and costs to build

the facilities needed to extract and process natural gas from

the Abadi gas field and convert it to LNG at an onshore plant.

Following its announcement of some initial awards on Monday,

Inpex ( IPXHF ) said that two contractor consortiums - one led by Japan's

JGC Holdings ( JGCCF ) and the other by U.S. engineering firm KBR

- have been selected to conduct FEED work for the

onshore LNG facility.

The two groups will work in parallel under a so-called "dual

FEED" framework to foster competition.

The consortium that provides the better technical and

commercial proposal will be awarded the subsequent Engineering,

Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract, Inpex ( IPXHF ) said.

The FEED scope also includes work related to carbon capture

and storage (CCS), it said.

The move signals progress toward a final investment decision

on the project, which is expected to produce at its peak 9.5

million metric tons of LNG a year.