BPMIGAS approves 41 PoD, PoP in ?11

Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency (BPMIGAS) has approved 41 Plans of Development (PoD) and production acceleration, or Put on Production (PoP), throughout the year with estimated additional reserves of 301.72 million barrels for oil and 4 trillion cubic feet for gas.

The number of approval is the highest over the past nine years, with PoD and PoP approvals between the 2003-2010 period averaging 32.

Gde Pradnyana, BPMIGAS Head of Public Relations, Security and Formality Division, claims the agency has managed to cut bureaucratic chains and reduce the approval process, which eventually results in the higher number of PoD and PoP approvals.

?From our earlier commitment to finalize the PoD approval process within 31 working days, we have succeeded this year to do that within 13 working days in average,? Gde said, adding that the process for PoP approval took about 10 working days from its earlier target of 21 working days.

The approvals include the first PoD for new oil and gas fields such as the Jangkrik field in the Muara Bakau block.

National oil and gas production in 2011 stands at 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, slightly lower than the 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent recorded a year earlier. In 2009, production reached 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. (godang/bernard/giok/edi)