Pertamina to boost gas, crude production

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina plans to increase gas and crude oil production by eight and 14 percent, respectively, this year.

The company?s corporate secretary Toharso said in Jakarta on Friday gas production was expected to reach 1,270.08 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD), or about eight percent from about 1,176 MMSCFD last year.

?The increase will be contributed by higher production from Subang, Musi Barat, Merbau and Pagar Dewa gas fields,? he said.

Meanwhile, the fall in crude prices does not discourage the company from raising its oil production target. This year, it plans to increase oil production by 14 percent to 171,000 barrels per day from 150,200 barrels per day last year.

To meet the target, all of the company?s business units in the upstream sector are expected to boost production. Toharso said. Pertamina EP, for example, is expected to raise production to 125,000 barrels per day, Pertamina Hulu Energi to 34,700 barrels per day and Pertamina Cepu to 6,700 barrels per day.

Pertamina also hoped oil fields which it planned to acquire this year would contribute at least 5,000 barrels per day to the total production target.

?We also plan to increase production of oil fields from Pertamina?s subsidiaries such as the Sukowati, Tambun, Limau and Poleng fields,? Toharso said.

In addition, Pertamina also plans to boost production at its geothermal fields. Power supplyies from the firm's geothermal fields are expected to increase to 2,022 giga watt hour (GWh) this year from 1,952 GWh last year, while geothermal steam production is expected to increase to 15.4 million tons from 14.7 million tons. (*)