Total starts expansion plan in Kalimantan fields

Total E&P Indonesie, of Indonesia?s major oil and gas producers, will start this week the development of several new fields, including the Tunu field in Kutai. East Kalimantan as part of the company?s expansion program.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Zahedy Saleh is scheduled today to officially inaugurate the start of the development of the gas fields in the province. The expansion will include the construction of the Tunu 11, 12 and 13 areas, and Peciko 6 area and their processing unit called South Processing Unit.

Roy W. Wangsaputra, Total E&P site manager, said the development of the new fields was expected to be able to offset the decline in the production of the existing fields. ?If the expansion is not made the production will naturally decline because the depletion of the existing reserves,? he added.

Total produced 2,500 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) as of March . The production showed a decline of 30 mmscfd week in the month.

Roy said that there were 111 wells in Bekapai, Senipah and Peciko fields, but only 26 of them were productive at present. Some of them have been in operation since 1974. Bekapai also produces crude oil of about 7,000 barrels per day (bpd), or about 10 percent of Total?s oil production which reached 72,000 bpd.

Meanwhile, Peciko produced 700 mmscfd of gas or about 30 percent of the company?s total gas production. The gas and oil produced from the two fields are stored and processed in the Senipah field which has five oil storages. (godang)