Oil production consistently increases

Indonesian oil production has continued to increase each month, hitting the level of 834,400 barrels per day (bpd) as of June 30 2016 and 834,700 bpd as of July 30, higher than the lifting target of 820,000 bpd set in the revised 2016 State Budget, upstream authority SKK Migas said in a statement on Wednesday.

Gas production averaged 7,962 mmscfd as of July 30, slightly down from 7,985 mmscd as of June 30, but higher than the revised 2016 State Budget target of 6,440 mmscfd,? SKK Migas? Head Amien Sunaryadi said.

?Thanks to support from all parties, we are optimistic to reach the target set by the government,? Amien said.

Investment in the first half of the year (H1 2016) reached US$5.65 billion, of which $367 million for exploration, $845 million for development, $3.922 billion for production and $521 million for administration. ?This indicates that oil and gas upstream companies put priority on development program,? he said.

It came as no surprise that the realization of development well drilling, workover and well maintenance was significant. For instance, realized drilling of development well in H1 2016 totaled 144 wells or 59 percent of the annual plan of 245 wells, realized workover totaled 604 wells or 47 percent of the annual plan of 1,286 wells, while realized well maintenance totaled 16,822 wells or 42 percent of the annual plan of 39,956 wells.

He admitted that exploration activities slowed down in H1 2016. For instance, realized 2D seismic survey was only 1,057 km, or a mere 10 percent of the annual plan of 10,955 km, while realized 3D seismic survey was only 865 sq km or a mere 8 percent of the annual plan of 11,217 sq km. In the meantime,, there were only 23 exploration wells that were drilled in H1 2016, or only 34 percent of the annual target of 68 wells,

?The small realization of the exploration activities will result in the decrease in discovery of new oil and gas in the future,? he said.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon