Many of Pertamina's oil wells remain inactive

Exploration Think Thank Indonesia (ETTI) has called on the government to boost production activities in marginal oil wells in order to meet its target to raise oil output to 1.3 million barrels per day by 2009.

Speaking in a seminar in Jakarta on Tuesday, ETTI's chairman Andang Bachtiar said that many of Pertamina's marginal oil wells had been left inactive because the production could no longer meet the high production costs.

"At least 52 of Pertamina's oil wells have been idle. If these oil fields are reoperated they would bring a significant contribution to the country's oil production," he said, adding that with the use of enhanced oil recovery technology, production at such marginal oil fields could be significantly increased.

He said that the government should also encourage Pertamina to speed up the development of its untapped oil fields in order to increase the country's crude oil production.

A number of oil blocks awarded to Pertamina such as Aru Block, Bunga Mekar Block, Musi Klingi Block, North Central Java Block, Suci Nona Block, Sanggata and Matindok Block remain untapped.

Several years ago, Pertamina had begun exploration activities in some of the oil blocks but they were latter halted due to the lack of financing. (*)