First deep-sea oil project, West Seno oil field, to start production next year

West Seno oil field, Indonesia?s first deep sea oil exploration project located in the Makassar Strait about 190 kilometers off Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, is expected to start production in April, 2003, with an initial output of 60,000 barrels per day, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said as reported by Bisnis Indonesia on Wednesday.

The minister said that with the production level of 60,000 barrels per day, the deep sea oil field which is operated by Unocal Makassar Ltd, would be able to increase Indonesia?s total crude oil production to about 1.3 million barrels per day.

"When the second stage of the West Seno project is developed, the production will be able to increase to 100,000 barrels per day, giving bigger contribution to the country?s oil production," he told reporters during a ceremony to mark the completion of the construction of Unocal?s Floating Production Unit (FPU) at state owned shipbuilding company PT PAL on Tuesday. PT PAL is located in Surabaya, East Java.

According to Purnomo, West Seno oil exploration is the pioneer in the development of the deep-sea oil field in the country. Several other oil companies such as Premier, Conoco, ExxonMobil and Codeco will also carry out similar projects in several deep-water locations in the country.

President director of Unocal Makassar Ltd, Brian Marcote, said the FPU would be used as a processing center of oil and gas pumped out from the West Seno field which is located in the sea area with the depth of between 732 meters and 1,000 meters.

The oil processed from the oil field, which was discovered in 1997, would be transmitted through undersea pipeline to Unocal?s oil receiving terminal in Santan, East Kalimantan, Brian said. (*)