Pertamina raises ONWJ output after acquiring it from BP

State owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina has managed to raise the oil output of Onshore North West Java block by 4,000 barrels per day (bpd) after taking it over from British energy firm BP Plc.

The block's oil output now stands 26,000 bpd as against 22,000 bpd when it was still under the control of BP Indonesia two months ago.

BP sold its 46 percent stake in the block to Pertamina for US$280 million.

"We managed to increase production thanks to maintenance measures on ONWJ facilities," Ali Mundakir, spokesman for PT Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE), Pertamina's upstream arm, told Petromindo.com by phone on Tuesday.

Gas output is stable at 220 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD)

He said PHE plans to develop two other wells at the block, which is geologically connected with wells owned by Pertamina in West Java.

"Our target is to develop two additional wells in 2010, which happen to be linked to our operation in West Java ," he said.

ONWJ stretches from Cirebon in the east to the Seribu Islands in the west. It consists of 670 production wells and has 170 production platforms, over 40 processing and service facilities, along with approximately 1,600 km of sub-sea pipelines.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources' data says the block, one of the largest in the country, produced 270 MMCFD of gas in 2008 and more than 20,000 bpd of oil. The block supplies gas to state-owned gas distribution firm PT Perusahaan Gas Negara, state owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara and state fertilizer firm PT Pupuk Kujang. (godang)