Major oil companies fail to meet production target
Wednesday, July 13 2005 - 02:03 AM WIB
Kardaya Warnika, the head of BP Migas, the government's agency in charge of oil and gas exploration and production, said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the failure of the major oil companies to meet the production target would also affect the country's total oil production.
"This year, the national oil production will reach only about 1.075 million barrels per day, lower than the target of 1.125 million barrels per day set in the state budget," he was quoted as saying.
He attributed the failure to meet the target to technical probolems in the procurement of drilling facilities and land clearance.
Kardaya said that the most significant production drop occurred in the CPP oil block in Riau which is operated by Joint Operation Body of PT Bumi Siak Pusako and Pertamina Hulu.
According to Kardaya, the oil production in the CPP block only reached about 60 percent of the 35,000 barrels per day targeted by the government during the first semester of this year due to problem related to the procurement of drilling facilities.
The country's largest oil producer PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia also suffered a drop in the oil production in the first semester. The company's realized oil production reached only abut 480,000 barrels per day during the first six moths slightly below the government's target of 485,000 barrels per day.
Kardaya said that Caltex failed to meet the production target due to land clearance problem in the company's new oil wells. In addition to Caltex, other major oil producer Unocal Indonesia also suffered a drop in its production in the first semester due to the rescheduling of its production program during the period.
He, however, was upbeat the production in the second semester would be able to increase by 17,000 barrels per day to 1.066 million barrels per day the despite the declining trend in the first six months.
Kardaya attributed the higher production to the commencement of the operation of several oil new oil fields during the second semester. The operation of Santos' Oyong field in Madura will contribute at least 8,700 barrels per day to the national production. Kodeco's new oil field in Madura and Papua will also contribute about 7,000 barrels and 9,000 barrels per day, respectively. (*)