Oil output to slightly miss target

The country?s oil output as per early October reached 805,451 bpd, or 98.77 percent of the 815,000 bpd target set in the revised 2017 state budget, Investor Daily reported on Tuesday.

The paper quoted Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Ego Syahrial as saying that oil production this year is likely to miss the 815,000 bpd target. ?It?s likely to be only around 98 percent of the target,? he said, adding that a 5 percent deviation is normal in the oil and gas industry.

In contrast, gas production has exceeded the 2017 target. As per early October average gas production stood at 7,596 mmscfd, or 18.6 percent of the 6,403.12 mmscfd target. As a result, total oil and gas production has reached 2.16 million boedp, or 10.2 percent higher than the 1.96 million boepd target set in the revised 2017 state budget.

According to ministry data, the paper, said that the lower oil production among others was due to planned shutdown by a number of oil and gas contractors including PT Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE) Offshore North West Java (ONWJ), Star Energy, and PT PHE West Madura Offshore (WMO).

Another factor was unplanned shutdown by PHE ONWJ, Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI), and Santos Madura Offshore.

Operational obstacles have also contributed to the lower oil production including well suspension during drilling program by Medco Natuna, delays in oil distribution due to bad weather by CPI. (*)