Oil lifting reaches only 794,000 bpd, below target

By Febry Silaban & Godang Sitompul

Oil lifting reaches 794,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year or 97 percent of the 2014 revised State Budget?s target of 818,000, upstream authority SKK Migas?s spokesperson Rudianto Rimbono said on Tuesday.

Rudi said the reason behind the failure to achieve the target was that oil and gas contractors continued facing technical problems and external and internal obstacles.

?At the start of the year, there were operators who could not carry out routine activities. There were also problems onshore. In the middle of this year, there were several accidents affecting the operations of several PSC holders. All these impacted the efforts to meet the lifting target,? he said.

Gas production target is however achieved this year. Indonesia produces 1.218 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) or 7,066 bbtud, compared to the 2014 revised State Budget?s target of 1.224 million boepd.

?Thus as far as gas is concerned, we are not worried,? Rudi said.

State revenue from oil reached US$28.874 billion this year, while revenue from gas is $23.803 billion

Realized exploration activities, including 2D, 3D seismic and non-seismic surveys, totalled 37 activities this year, while drilling activities totalled 77, as against the target of 132.

Exploitation activities included development well drilling (1,212 activities), workover (1,074 activities) and well services (31,217 activities)

For next year, oil lifting is targeted at between 840,000-850,000 bpd, while gas lifting is targeted at 1.170-1.77 million boepd.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon