Indonesia fails to meet oil and condensate output target

Indonesia?s oil and condensate production averaged 966,449 barrels per day (bpd) as from early the year to March 28, lower than the target of 1.05 million bpd set in the 2007 state budget.

Deputy for Operational Affairs at oil and gas upstream regulator BPMIGAS Dodi Hidayat said in Jakarta on Monday that some fields faced problems to meet their output target. ?Several fields were damaged that their output declined,? he said, without specifying.

The nation?s oil fields yielded a total of 851,719 bpd and 14,730 bpd throughout the period.

Dodi said the country needed to find big fields such as the one found by American oil and gas firm ExxonMobil Corp in Cepu in the border areas of Central Java and East Java in order to stop the declining trend. ?It?s necessary to find two or three more fields like Cepu Block,? he said.

Meanwhile, president director of Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI) Suwito Anggoro said that his company?s oil production decreased by 6 percent ? 7 percent from that in 2006 because its fields are getting older. ?Without hard work and huge investment, the decline rate could reach 15 percent ? 20 percent? he said. (godang)