SKK Migas: Exploration activities to be lower this year

By Bernard Loebs

Courtesy of SKKMigas

Upstream oil and gas authority SKK Migas said that exploration drilling activities will be lower this year compared to last year?s amid the lingering weak oil price environment.

SKK Migas Public Relations Head Taslim Yunus said on Monday that upstream activities by oil and gas contractors in the country this year will be based on the 2017 work and budget plan (WP&B) which has been approved by the authority, comprising of 223 development drilling programs, 860 workover programs, and 57,000 well service activities.

He said that exploration drilling in producing oil and gas blocks this year will cover 25 wells, down from 40 planned in the 2016 WP&B, of which only 36 were realized.

Meanwhile, drilling programs in exploration blocks this year are planned in only 25 wells, which Yunus said is lower than last year?s, but did not provide comparative figure.

SKK Migas said in December that it has approved the 2017 WP&B with higher capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure (opex) of US$13 billion, compared to last year?s $11.9 billion. The higher capex and opex figure is mostly attributed to drilling programs planned by Pertamina at the Mahakam block in East Kalimantan.

There are currently 85 oil and gas contractors operating in the country, of which 67 are in production and exploitation status, while 18 contractors still in development phase.

Oil lifting for next year has been set slightly lower at 825,000 bopd, compared to 828,000 bopd estimated for last year, while gas 1,175 at boepd.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak