RI's January crude output lower than target

The country’s crude oil production in January 2004 stood at 1,081,000 barrels per day (bpd), below the government's target of 1.2 million bpd, Bisnis Indonesia newspaper reported on Thursday.

It was also below Indonesia’s OPEC quota of 1.27 million bpd.

Director of operations and production at the oil and gas directorate general Novian Thaib told reporters at the ministry of energy and mineral resources in Jakarta on Wednesday that the country produced 143,000 bpd of condensate. But the crude output was still lower than the government’s target in the 2004 state budget target of 1.2 million bpd.

According to Novian, the drop in oil output was due to decreasing output from aging wells and delayed oil production at some new wells.

Upstream oil and gas authority BPMIGAS’ deputy chief Kardaya Warnika, who was also present at the same press briefing, agreed with Novan on the reasons for dropping in oil output.

Kardaya gave West Seno oil field as an example. The development of West Seno oil field, which is operated by Unocal, is badly delayed and affected the country’s overall production in meeting the budget quota. There were also some other technical problems in drilling operations that reduced the production like in the case of CNOOC.

However, the crude production will increase in the coming months and fulfill the target, given the fact that several production sharing contractors are in the process of increasing their production, Kardaya said.

The government last year awarded 15 exploration and exploitation contracts and expects to award at least 17 new contracts this year. (*)