Govt sets oil lifting target at 910,000-940,000 bpd next year

By Godang Sitompul

The government has set oil and condensate lifting target at between 910,000 and 940,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the proposed state budget for next year, as compared to 930,000 bpd in the current state budget.

?In view of production development in 2011, efforts to increase production and expected additional production from new fields, oil and condensate lifting target has been set at 910,000 and 940,000 bpd in the proposed 2013 State Budget,? Director General of Oil and Gas Evita H. Legowo, said on Thursday during a hearing with the House of Representatives? Commission VII which oversees among others energy affairs.

In the state budget, the government also proposed gas lifting target at between 7,480 and 7,900 mmscfd, bringing the combined oil and gas lifting target for next year at around 2.3 million barrels oil equivalent per day (boepd).

The country?s oil and condensate output averaged 881,000 bpd as of May 28 this year, compared with last year?s realized output of 908,000. Meanwhile, realized gas output as of May 28 this year averaged 7,685 bbtud.

"Realized oil and gas lifting as of May 28 stood at 2.162 million boepd,? Evita said as quoted in a statement issued by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

The government, for the first time, has included gas lifting target in the state budget based on the proposal from upstream authority BPMIGAS. The previous budgets only set oil lifting target. The national oil output is now on the declining trend, while the gas output is on the rise.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon