Oil and gas lifting close to target: SKK Migas

The country?s average oil and gas lifting from January to May 14 stood at 99.5 percent of the target set in the 2016 state budget, according to a senior official at upstream and oil and gas authority SKK Migas.

?Of the oil and gas lifting target of 1.985 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, realization reached 1.975 million boepd per May 14,? said Acting Deputy for Operation Control at SKK Migas, Ngatijan said on Wednesday.

According to SKK Migas data, realized oil lifting stood at 781,100 bpd, or 94.1 percent of the state budget target of 830,000 bpd. Meanwhile, realized gas lifting averaged 6.674 mmscfd, exceeding the 6.47 mmscfd target.

Meanwhile, Kontan quoted Ngatijan as saying that oil and gas exploration activities in the country has slowed down amid the current oil price drop. He said that of the target set by SKK Migas to drill 149 wells this year, as per May exploration drilling only cover 16 wells.

Ngatijan is pessimistic that the full-year target could be achieved, considering that in the past, exploration drilling only reached 35 percent of the target set in the work program and budget of the oil and gas contractors.(*)