Unocal upbeat oil production will reach 55,000 bpd

Unocal Company Indonesia is upbeat that its crude oil production will reach between 52,000 and 55,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2002 although newly developed wells have yet to start production activities, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

The company?s supervisor for public relations and media relations, Samsulistyo, said in Balikpapan on Tuesday the company had stepped up efficiency measure to ensure that the production would reach between 50,000 and 55,000 bpd or between 1.5 million and 1.6 million barrels per month this year.

Although the production target is set within the production level realized in 2001, he was optimistic that this year?s total production would be able to exceed the target.

According to him, newly developed oil wells such as the offshore West Seno and Merah Besar wells in the Makassar Strait would commence production in 2004 or 2005.

He said that the company?s natural gas production was estimated to reach between two million and three million cubic feet per month this year. "The projected gas production will be also about the same level with last year?s realized gas output," he added.(*)