Old oil fields in C. Sumatra have oil deposits of 4.5 billion barrels

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Indonesia has additional oil deposit of at least 4.5 billion barrels from old and marginal oil fields in Central Sumatra, Investor Daily reported on Wednesday.

Speaking at a seminar on oil and gas in Jakarta on Tuesday, Purnomo said that the estimated 4.5 billion barrels of oil deposits found in such old oil fields did not include the existing crude oil deposits of 9.746 billion barrels.

"Actually, such old fields could contribute a lot to the country's oil production," he said. He, however, acknowledged that the development of such old oil fields would not be easy because it would require a high technology to re-operate them," he added.

At present, the steam injection system is the only available technology to pull out the crude oil from crude oil from old fields. Realizing this difficult situation, the government would offer incentives to any company wanting to develop old oil fields in the country.

At present, the country's unproven oil deposits are believed to reach 9.746 billion barrels. With the current production level, the oil deposits could be produced for 20 years. However, according to the available data, the proven oil deposits are only about 4.721 billion barrels which are enough only for between nine and 10 years. (*)