Vico accelerates CBM production at Sanga-Sanga block

Oil and gas firm Vico Indonesia is in the process to accelerate CBM production at the Sanga-Sanga block in East Kalimantan, hoping that full production can be realized in 2019, Kontan daily reported on Wednesday.

Gunther Newcombe, CEO of Vico Indonesia, said that the company has already drilled 18 wells in the CBM block, with cost of about US$2.3 million per well. He did not provide detailed plans on accelerating the CBM production.

The Sanga Sanga field, the first CBM field to begin production in the country, distributes the gas to PLN?s 2 MW gas-fired power plant in Balikpapan. So far, the power plant receives 0.5 mmscfd of gas from the CBM block.

Gunther said that Vico submitted the plan of development for the CBM block in 2010, at which time the government required the company to invest US$60 million. But he said that his company has exceeded the investment requirement as it has invested an extra $40 million per year to develop the CBM block.

?We have invested three times more than what has been required by the government,? Newcombe said.

Elsewhere, Newcombe said that Vico Indonesia has set conventional gas production target of 300 mmscfd and crude production of 13,000 bpd this year. (*)