Minister to visit oil, gas fields

By Godang Sitompul

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik is scheduled to visit oil and gas fields in the country next week in a bid to push the production sharing contractors (PSCs) to meet production targets as the country struggles to increase oil output.

?Next week, I will check one by one the fields operated by the PSCs. Which are (performing) below target, and which are above target,? he told reporters Tuesday. ?If below target, we?ll ask for the reason. If the reason is not significant, it (production) must not decline.?

He said that following the arrest of the now suspended chairman of the upstream oil and gas authority Rudi Rubiandini on alleged bribery scandal, the country?s oil lifting immediately dropped due to negative psychological impact of the arrest among oil and gas industry players.

Jero said that oil liftig as of August stands at 828,000 bpd, which is still below the 840,000 bpd target set in the 2013 state budget. Gas output stands at 1.21 million boepd, also below the state budget target of 1.24 million boepd.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak