PEP hopes Tiung Biru-Jambaran unitization decided later this year
Thursday, September 6 2012 - 07:23 AM WIB
State oil and gas company PT Pertamina EP (PEP) hopes that the decision on the unitization of Tiung Biru-Jambaran gas fields in Cepu Block, Central Java, will be made before the end of this year.
Pertamina EP said that a plan of development (PoD) for Tiung Biru field had been presented to the upstream authority BPMIGAS since 2010.
?PoD had been submitted since 2010. Its approval and the start of production should not wait for the unitization, so there is no reason for the Presidential Working Team (UKP4) to be wondering about when the production of Tiung Biru and Jambaran fields to start,? PT Pertamina EP President Director Syamsu Alam told Petromindo.com in Jakarta on Thursday.
Syamsu also hopes that the production split with ExxonMobil under the unitization of Tiung Biru-Jambaran would not be based on the amount of total reserves. ?The split under the unitization should not be based on the amount of total reserves. It should be determined by volume percentage of reserves contained in each of our respective working areas. So, that issue should not present any difficulty whatsoever in the process of unitizing Tiung Biru and Jambaran,? he said.
He said that now the unitization was in a stage of finalizing the legal foundation for an agreement of both sides. ?It should be realized before the end of this year. Basically, the agreement will only be to legalize it. Technically and operationally, including its process of PoD, all have been proceeding accordingly,? he said.
Separately, ExxonMobil Senior Vice President Asep Sulaiman said that there was no problem in the process of unitizing Tiung Biru-Jambaran fields. ?No problem, all sides have been aligned. We only wait for its finalization,? he told Petromindo.com.
Meanwhile, upstream authority BPMIGAS is currently in the process of reviewing the PoD for the Jambaran and Tiung Biru fields in the Cepu Block, East Java.
?MCL (Mobil Cepu Limited) has submitted the draft. It?s currently being discussed at BPMIGAS,? Widyawan Prawiraatmadja, Deputy for Planning at BPMIGAS, said last week.
The approval of the PoD would pave a way for the unitization of the two gas fields. While PT Pertamina EP holds a 100 percent interest in the Tiung Biru field, the Jambaran field is co-owned with ExxonMobil.
Editing by Benget Besalicto Tnb.