Fire disrupts production at ExxonMobil?s Aceh gas field

US oil, gas giant ExxonMobil said on Thursday that fire incident at its gas processing facility complex in Cluster IV, Arun field, North Aceh had forced the company to curtail production from Cluster III and IV.

?A fire occurred at Cluster IV at approximately 1:00 AM on August 27, 2003. There was one person injured and some facilities damaged during the incident. EMOI emergency response personnel had extinguished the fire and investigation into incident is underway,? said Deva Rachman ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia (EMOI) spokesperson in an interview Thursday.

Deva said buyers have been informed about the situation, and an assessment is underway of what, if any, impact there will be on gas delivery schedule.

Arun gas fields are the sole natural gas supplier to Arun NGL, which sells LNG to Japan and South Korea. Arun gas complex normally produces 1.6 BCFD of gas.

Deva did not say when the damaged facilities would be back to normal. ?EMOI has assigned a team to return the facilities to service as soon as possible,? she said.

But a BP Migas official told Petromindo.Com that repair works would be completed within one week time and there would be no delivery delay to overseas buyers since Arun NGL is having sufficient LNG stock in its inventory. The official said the incident caused gas production to decline by around 25 percent.

The official also said that the incident was purely ?technical?.(alex/godang)