Exxon Mobil to drill development, exploration wells in Cepu block
Monday, May 14 2007 - 10:17 AM WIB
US oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. will start development drilling of Cepu oil field in East Java and would also move to drill three exploration well this year in the block, a company official said on Monday.
ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia (EMOI) spokesperson Maman Budiman said that a rig had been moved to the block to drill the first two development wells in Banyu Urip oil field as part of the program to bring the field to produce 165,000 barrels per day in 2010. Some 43 wells would be drilled in Banyu Urip, said Maman.
After completion of the first two well, Maman said Cepu partnership would commence drilling exploration wells. “There are three exploration ells that would be drilled in Cepu, namely, Alas Tua West, Alas Tua East and Kedung Keris,” he said, adding that Exxon is currently working to procure one more rig to speed up drilling program.
Maman also said that depending on rig availability one well to appraise Jambaran gas discovery would also be drilled. Aside from finding oil in Cepu, Exxon had also discovered large accumulation of gas in the block.
Meanwhile, EMOI President Peter Coleman told reporters that Cepu partnership is currently studying possibility of early oil production in 2008 or early 2009. “The first thing to do is to do is to determine whether it is economic for us to have early production and we are currently finalizing the decision on that,” he said. The government had been pressing ExxonMobil to have early production from the field to support government plan to increase Indonesian oil production by 30 percent in 2009.
Coleman also said that further appraisal programme would be necessary to determine the size of gas accumulation in Cepu block, but said that it may need up to US$2 billion to develop the gas field. There had been wide speculation on the size of gas reserves at Cepu, and some government officials say that the reserves could reach up to 6 TCF.
The government had also urged ExxonMobil and Pertamina, which shares equal interest of 45% each, to speed up gas field development to supply gas-thirsty customers in Java. (Alex/Godang)