Southern part of Sumatra plans 64 drilling activities

Upstream authority SKK Migas said that oil and gas drilling programs in southern part of Sumatra next year will be focused in ?64 points,? including 27 carry over from 2014 as the region aims to increase production.

?Next year, there will be 64 activities,? Head of the southern part of Sumatra branch of SKK Migas, Tirat S, Ichtijar as quoted by local reports Thursday.

?Our target for next year is to increase (oil production) as much as possible,? he added.

He said that out of the planned 49 drilling programs by oil and gas contractors in the region in 2014, only 22 were realized.

Tirat said that there were 64 oil and gas contractors operating in southern part of Sumatra out of the total 321 contractors in the country, producing oil and gas in eight regencies.

He said that oil production in the region has been on a declining trend since 1996 due to a number of problems including difficulties in finding new reserves, aging well, and illegal tapping.

?Oil lifting has been declining. This year, it?s only about 3 million barrels per month (98,000 bopd). That?s why upstream investment must be increased,? Tirat said. (*)