Indonesia?s upstream expenditure increase to boost gas, oil production

Indonesian upstream authority BPMIGAS said on Thursday that upstream expenditure for this year would increase significantly to US$12 billion from $7.9 billion this year and the increased investment would boost Indonesian hydrocarbon production in 2009.

BPMIGAS Chairman Kardya Warnika told reporters on a sideline of Indonesian Petroleum Engineers Association conference in Yogjakarta that until the first half of the year, realized expenditure has reached $5.7 billion, close to the planned expenditure of $6 billion.

Kardaya said that the increased expenditure would boost gas production from around 8BCFD currently to 11BCFD in 2009 and oil production from below 1 million BPD to 1.1 million BPD. Gas production increase would mainly come from BP-operated Tangguh LNG project, ConocoPhillips South Sumatra gas fields and Pertamina’s South Sumatra gas fields, while oil production increase would come from several new oilfileds such as Oyong offshore East Java and ExxonMobil’s Cepu field.

Kardaya predicted that 2008 expenditure would stay at around $12 billion next year as the agency plans to speed up PoD approval this year. “Up until first half, BPMIGAS has approved 22 PoDs with value of around $5 billion. More PoDs will be approved in the second half of this year,” he said. (alex)