Production at CPP continues to decline
Tuesday, November 21 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
Oil production at the Coastal Plain Pekanbaru (CPP) oil field in the Riau Province continued to decline due to remaining uncertainty on who will run the oil field after August 2001, when the contract of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) expires, the Suara Karya daily reported.
The paper quoted CPI communications and media relations manager Oetomo as saying that the CPP could once produce up to 70,000 barrels of oil per day, but now daily production had declined to between 50,000-55,000 bpd.
Oetomo said that the production decline started after new investment in the oil block was stopped due to the uncertainty.
He said that to reach the initial production level of 70,000 bpd, a huge new investment was needed.
The uncertainty over the oil block emerged after the Riau administration demanded a 70 percent ownership in Caltex's 15 percent share in CPP (the state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina gets 85 percent) after the company's contract expires in August 2001. But the central government seems to have a different view. (*)