CPI trying to keep oil output from falling sharply

Oil producer PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) is preparing measures to prevent its production from falling drastically, a company official told Petromindo.Com Thursday.

"We are trying to keep our production from falling too sharply," said Wahyudin Yudiana, CPI's senior vice president who will take over as company president director from retiring Humayunbosha within a couple of months.

The company will adopt the so-called lay-by-layer method of production on its Minas and Duri oil fields in Riau in Central Sumatra, Wahyudin said. He did not explain, however.

A careful study was being conducted on the characteristics of Minas and Duri oil reservoirs, he said.

CPI, Indonesia's biggest oil producer and a subsidiary of US energy giant ChevronTexaco, produced 575,500 barrels per day (bpd) of oil in 2002 and its average production last year dropped to 494,838 bpd following the expiration of Coastal Plain Pekanbaru (CPP) production sharing contract.

Aside from the expiration, the declining production is also caused by social unrest, equipment theft and natural depletion in its fields on the island of Sumatra.

The company is currently operating three blocks in Riau namely Siak, Rokan and Mountain Front Kuantan and another block, the Kisaran, in North Sumatra. (godang)