Pertamina?s Sarawak oil field to start production in October

PT Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE), a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina for upstream operations, expects that its block in Malaysia will be able to begin production in October this year.

Dwi Martono, PHE?s Director for International Business Affairs said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the company?s SK-305 block in Malaysia was expected to go on stream in October, this year with a capacity around 6,000 barrels per day (BPD).

Earlier, the company said that initial production would start at 7,500 BPD, ramping up to 20,000 BPD in 2011.

The block is operated under the Joint Operating Company (JOC) scheme, where Petronas has a 40 percent stake, while Pertamina and PetroVietnam have a 30 percent stake each.

Block SK305 is located in water depth of 150 metres in Balingian, offshore Sarawak, covering an area of about 16,400 sq kilometres.

PHE also expects that the company?s oil blocks ? Block 10 and 11.1 - in Vietnam would start its production in 2011. PHE has a 10 percent interest in the Vietnamese oil blocks, with the remaining 90 percent being held by its partners Petro Vietnam, Petronas Carigali and Quad Energi.

In addition to Malaysia, and Vietnam, PHE also owns a number of oil blocks in Libya and Iraq.

Dwi said that PHE has 100 percent interest in two oil and gas blocks ? Block 17-3 and Block 123-3 - in Libya. The Block 17-3 is estimated to hold gas reserves of 3.5 trillion cubic feet while the Block 123-3 had oil reserves of about 427 million barrels.

According to Dwi, the company has set aside about US$500 million in capital expenditure this year to develop its oil blocks both at home and overseas. About $125 million of the total funds will be used for development of overseas oil and gas blocks and the remainders for the company?s operations in Indonesia. (godang)