Oil-gas lifting exceeds target this year

The realization of oil and gas lifting has surpassed the target set this year. The target of oil lifting in the revised 2016 state budget (APBN-P 2016) set at 820,000 barrels per day (bpd), while the target of gas lifting at 6,438 mmscfd.

SKK Migas Public Relations Manager Taslim Z. Yunus said on Friday that the realization of oil lifting as of November 2016 reached 822,000 bpd, while gas reached 6,643 mmscfd, which are both higher than the target.

He said that the realized oil and gas production is derived from 67 working areas of oil and gas which have been in production. Among the 67 working areas, the largest contributors include Banyu Urip field of Cepu Block, Rokan block, Pertamina EP, Mahakam, and Offshore Northwest Java (ONWJ).

?Train B in Banyu Urip project has started production with full capacity at 185,000 bpd since January 2016,? said Taslim in a press release issued on Friday.

He pointed out that there are five working areas as the largest contributors of gas production, namely Mahakam Block, Berau, Pertamina EP, Corridor, and Senoro-Toili.

Most of the oil and gas working areas are categorized as mature fields which have been seeing a natural decline. To arrest the declining trend, the contractors of the working areas had conducted three programs. The three programs are to drill new development wells, conduct work over, and well service.

?Since early this year until the end of November, the oil and gas contractors have conducted drillings of 212 development wells, 1,055 projects of work over, and 33,925 projects of well service,? said Taslim.

He noted that in terms of increasing new reserves of oil and gas, the only way is through explorations and by developing sources of new reserves. In terms of explorations, during January to November 2016, contractors have conducted 10 seismic surveys, 11 non-seismic surveys, 36 exploration wells drillings, and 3 exploration well re-entry.

Of all of the drillings of the exploration wells, 20 drillings had been finalized. Seven of them managed to strike oil (discovery), seven of them failed (dry), five of them indicated hydrocarbon, while one is undergoing an evaluation.

The discoveries are located in Bambu Besar (BBS)-4 by Pertamina EP, Tiung-3 by PetroChina International Jabung Ltd, Meliwis-1 by Santos (Madura Offshore) Pty Ltd), Lumbian-2 (Seleraya Merangin 2), AAL-4X (Santos Northwest Natuna B.V), ABG-3 (Pertamina EP); and Sidayu-4 (Saka Indonesia Pangkah Ltd).

Taslim said that this year (2016), SKK Migas had also approved 28 Plan of Development (POD) and Plan of Further Development (POFD), which are expected to increase reserve of oil at 142.45 million barrels and gas at 0.645 TSCF. The development of those fields will need a total investment of US$2.94 billion, and expected to earn state income at US$6.85 billion.

Taslim said that the upstream projects, the explorations and productions, need a lot of investments. As of November this year, the investments already spent by the upstream industries amounted to US$10.43 billion, mostly for production at US$7.81 billion.

According to him, until now the oil and gas sector is still affected by the low oil prices at the global market. The Indonesian Crude Price (ICP) so far this year averaged at US$39.15 per barrel, which was lower than the ICP set in the APBN-P 2016 at US$ 40 per barrel. With that level of price, Indonesia?s state income from the upstream oil and gas sector is expected to reach US$9.294 billion or about Rp 125 trillion by the end of this year.

Editing by Benget Besalicto ST.