ExxonMobil suspends artificial lake project

By Febry Silaban

Mobil Cepu Limited (MCL), a subsidiary of American energy giant ExxonMobil, has suspended the development of an artificial lake in Central Java to exploit oil from the Cepu block using water from Bengawan Solo river due to heavy rains.

"The artificial lake that is being dredged is now full of water, that the firm can?t continue the dredging works," Unit Head for Acceleration of Banyu Urip Project at upstream authority SKK Migas, Julius Wiratno told Petromindo.com, on Friday.

He said once the rainy season has been over and the soil has turned dry again, the dredging works will be resumed.

"The artificial lake has the storage capacity of about 2.75 million meters cubic," explained Julius.

MCL is building the artificial lake to support its oil production at Cepu block. The firm previously said the water from Bengawan Solo will be channeled through a pipe into the lake during the rainy season when the water level rises above the minimum limit. The water will be injected into the oil wells to put pressure on the reservoir during production.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon