Medco seeks to increase oil, gas production in Oman

By Thomas Sembiring

PT Medco E&P, an upstream subsidiary of IDX-listed energy company PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk, will drill a total of 33 wells at the Karin fields, in Oman, this year as it seeks to increase oil and gas production from the asset.

"We'll drill 33 wells in Oman this year. We'll see next year production will increase," said Ronald Gunawan, President Director of Medco E&P, to Petromindo.com Wednesday, without revealing the figure for the output increase.

He said that drilling program for next year has yet to be discussed with the government of Oman.

Ronald said gross production currently stands at 17,000 bopd, of which 8,500 bopd is Medco's share.

According to company website, Medco won in 2006 tender for Service E&P Agreement (the first of its kindin Oman) whereby Petroleum Development Oman, PDO, outsourced an onshore fieldarea, Karim Fields, for a third party contract operator to operate on itsbehalf with the objective of arresting decline, increasing production and exploiting the potential of the fields.

Medco's partners in the Contract to operate the fields are Oman Oil Corporation (OOC) ? an oil and gas explorationand production company owned by the Government of Oman, Kuwait Energy (KuwaitEnergy) - a Kuwaiti private investment company, and two Omani local privatecompanies. Their partnership is established through a Joint Venture Agreement(JVA), with the following shareholdings: Medco (51%), OOC (25%), Kuwait Energy (15%), and Omani Partners (0.9%).

Ronald said its "business" in Oman will still last for another 25 years.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak