ExxonMobil-Pertamina intensify efforts to start Cepu development

American energy giant ExxonMobil Corp and state oil and gas company Pertamina are intensifying efforts to start the development of the Cepu oil and gas block.

Pertamina EP Cepu?s general manager Estu Bagyo said on Thursday the consortium had secured the lease of a rig for the development program and sent another plan of development (POD) to upstream authority BP Migas for approval.

?We need three rigs to start the development of the block. We are looking for another two rigs but we are optimistic to start the development this year,? Estu said.

He said the consortium had sent the block?s POD to BP Migas on May 5 and the agency had promised to finish the evaluation of the POD in one month.

?We are now waiting for the result of the evaluation,? Estu said.

The Cepu block located in the border areas of Central Java and East Java provinces are believed to contain about 600 million barrels of oil reserve and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. ExxonMobil and Pertamina have set up a consortium to co-develop the block.

Earlier, the consortium announced the development of the block could be delayed due to the scarcity of rigs, but the government has insisted that the consortium should quickly develop the block to capitalize on the current high oil price.

The POD sent by ExxonMobil-Pertamina on May 5 is the second made by the consortium. The first POD was rejected by BP Migas on the grounds it was ?incomplete?. The first POD comprised only of 10 pages, which BP Migas considered as ?too brief? given the large scale of the works to be carried out in the development of the Cepu oil block. (Godang)