RI may miss oil lifting target again: SKK Migas

The oil lifting target of 900,000 bpd set in 2015 State Budget may fail to be realized due to lingering obstacles to production and a delay in the peak production schedule of the giant Cepu block, reports said on Wednesday.

Bisnis Indonesia quoted Secretary of the upstream oil and gas authority SKK Migas, Gde Pradnyana as saying that the delay in the peak production schedule of the Cepu block in Central Java would affect the 2015 oil lifting target set by the government. He said that the schedule has been pushed back to October 2015 from July as the production volume is being revised upward to 200,000 bpd from initial estimate of 165,000 bpd.

Meanwhile, Kontan quoted Gde as saying that lingering problems that have hampered oil and gas contractors in meeting production targets such as regulatory uncertainty, permitting problem, red tapes, and tax issues continue to pose threat to the 2015 oil lifting target. SKK Migas has said that oil lifting for this year is estimated to reach only 804,000 bpd, lower than the 818,000 bpd set in the 2014 State Budget.

With all the aforementioned problems, Gde said that based on the ongoing discussions of the work and budget programs of oil and gas contractors, the 2015 oil lifting would likely be less than 845,000 bpd. ?Based on the work program and budgeting, we look at less than 845,000 bpd,? he said.

He added that deliberation of the work and budget programs would be concluded late this year, after which SKK Migas would come up with a more specific oil lifting estimate for 2015, which would be used as a basis for the proposed revision of the 2015 State Budget in January.

Meanwhile, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying Wednesday that the government considering the offer made by Brunei Darussalam for oil import from the latter country. ?We want to seek new oil and gas supply sources,? he said. (*)