Oil reserves down 1 percent

The country?s oil reserves as per January 1, 2015 declined by 1 percent to 7.30 billion barrels from 7.38 billion barrels per January 1, 2014, Director for Upstream Oil and Gas Management at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Djoko Siswanto said.

Bisnis Indonesia quoted Djoko as saying Monday that despite the lower reserves, there was new reserves of 160.88 million barrels obtained from 18 new fields. ?The new reserves are quite significant,? he said.

In contrast, the country?s gas reserves as per January 1, 2015 increased by 2.03 tcf (1.36%) to 151.33 tcf from the January 1, 2014 status of 149.3 tcf. There was additional reserves of 789.18 billion standard cubic fee (bscf).

Djoko explained that new oil and gas reserves were found by a number of oil and gas contractors.

BP Berau reported a change reserves at Vorwata field, which is a unitization of the Wiriagar field. BP Berau includes the new reserves as part of reserves of Wiriagar field.

CNOOC also reports additional reserves following calculation changes. Meanwhile, ConoccoPhillips Grissik also reported extra reserves at the Suban field. (*)