CPP on increasing production mode: Pertamina

State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina said that crude production from Coastal Plain Pekanbaru (CPP) block in Riau has been rising, and is confident to achieve a much stronger output level in the next few months.

?CPP is now producing at 36,250 barrels per day (BPD), up from around 35,000 BPD two weeks ago. After drilling program is completed in August this year, we are confident that CPP will be able to produce higher than 42,000 BPD, which is the block?s production level when we took over the block from Caltex Pacific Indonesia,? said Pertamina acting upstream director Eteng A. Salam.

Pertamina and partner PT. Bumi Siak Pusako (BSP), which is controlled by the local Siak regency administration, took over the block last year. Since then the block?s production was on a constant declining mode, prompting accusation that the two companies were incompetent in managing the oil block.

Eteng said the production decline was normal when a new operator took over new block. ?We need time to adapt. More over, in the first several months of operations, we were hit by flood problem that disturbed production. Now with production increasing, no one can say we are not competent,? said Eteng.

Eteng said this year; Pertamina and BSP would spend US$ 70 million in capital expenditure on the block. (alex)