BP migas seeks to settle dispute
BP migas seeks to settle dispute
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Oil and gas upstream authority BP Migas is seeking to settle a
dispute involving oil and gas companies ExxonMobil, Pertamina and
PetroChina over production tests at the Sukawati oil field in
East Java.
"BP Migas has invited the disputing parties for a talk to
solve the dispute on Friday," Trijana Kartoatmodjo, BP Migas'
deputy of operation, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The dispute centered on production tests currently being
carried out by joint venture JOB Tuban, comprising among others
state-owned Pertamina and China's PetroChina, at the Sukawati oil
field, which is believed to have oil recoverable resources of 25
million barrels.
Around 85 percent of the resources reportedly lie in the Cepu
block, owned by ExxonMobil, while the remaining 15 percent is in
the adjacent Tuban block, owned by JOB Tuban.
According to Petromindo.Com, the production tests have been
carried out without prior consent from ExxonMobil.
In April 2002, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources
issued a decree to unitize the Sukowati field and appointed JOB
Tuban as the operator on the assumption had transferred its part
of the reserves at the Sukowati field to Pertamina.
"Actually, ExxonMobil has yet to transfer the rights on
Sukowati to Pertamina. ExxonMobil only indicated its willingness
to relinquish Sukowati if Pertamina agrees to extend the Cepu
block contract for another 20 years.
"In fact, Pertamina unilaterally stopped negotiations with
ExxonMobil over the Cepu block contract extension. Therefore, the
government's decision to give operatorship to JOB Tuban is based
on faulty assumption and without hearing ExxonMobil's opinion,"
the website quoted a source as saying.
Pertamina recently announced it had refused to extend
ExxonMobil's contract on the Cepu block, which is believed to
contain at least 600 million barrels of oil. The contract is due
in 2010.
JOB Tuban had reportedly pumped up an estimated 170,000
barrels from the Sukawati field as of August.
Trijana admitted that at the request of Pertamina, he had
recently sent a letter asking JOB Tuban to stop the test
production, but the joint venture is continuing its test
production with a target of hitting the 300,000 barrel mark by
the end of this month.
"It is not easy to immediately stop production. Thus, we can
understand why production is continuing," Trijana said.
When contacted via cellphone, JOB Tuban's general manager
Alfian refused to comment, saying he was not sure that the caller
was from the Post.