Pertamina?s production rises 12 percent in July

State owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina (Persero) said on Tuesday its oil and gas production rose 12 percent to 640,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in July of this year from 571,000 boepd in the same month of last year.

Vice President of Corporate Communications Wianda Pusponegoro said the increase mainly came a result of the sharp increase in the production of Cepu block, which is 45 percent owned by the firm. The firm?s net production share from the block rose 148 percent to 77,000 boepd in July of this year from 31,000 boepd in the same period of last year.

Its upstream subsidiary, PT Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE), also recoded a growth of production, from 149,000 boepd to 189,000 boepd, while PT Pertamina EP (PEP), another upstream subsidiary, remained the largest contributor to the oil and gas production with a production volume of 256,000 boepd recorded in July.

Overseas, PT Pertamina International EP (PIEP) recorded a production volume of 119,000 boepd from January to July 2016, up 8 percent from the corresponding period of last year.

The firm?s oil production, domestically and internationally, rose to 307,000 bpd in the first seven months of the year, up 11.6 percent from 275,000 bpd in the same period of last year; while gas production rose 12.8 percent to 1,932 mmscfd from 1,712 mmscfd.

?We?ll continue raising production domestically and internationally. The 12 percent growth achieved in the past seven months indicates that Petamina?s efforts have brought about positive results and the production is expected to continue increasing through the end of this year,? she said.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon