Minister to issue regulation on EOR application in oil fields

By Bonha Ventura Sebayang

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan will issue a ministerial regulation to help push upstream companies to apply enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology in aging oil fields in the country.

This was said by Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arcandra Tahar on Wednesday. He said that the ministerial regulation will become a legal basis in the application of EOR.

?We?ll push (for the application of) EOR. Actually, even without the ministerial regulation, EOR can be implemented. The ministerial regulation will be the legal basis,? he said.

He added that if EOR is applied, the government may provide extra output split for the field?s contractor.

Arcandra said that the application of EOR is crucial to help maintain the country?s oil output. He said without EOR, the country?s oil output could gradually decline to around 500,000 bpd by 2020 from the current rate of around 800,000 bpd.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak