Oil, gas producers miss 2002 output target

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's oil and gas production in 2002 did not meet the government's target, due to slowing investment, security concerns and natural disasters, a top government official said.

Director general of oil and gas at the Ministry of Energy and Resources I'in Arifin Takhyan said on Tuesday that state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina and other private oil contractors could only produce a total of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or 8 percent lower than the government's target of 1.3 million bpd.

He said that the gas output measured only 6.1 billion metric standard cubic feet per day, or 2 percent below the target of 6.24 billion metric standard cubic feet per day.

I'in said that the decline in output from the Coastal Plains Pekanbaru (CPP) oil block in Riau had significantly affected the country's oil production last year.

Oil output from the CPP block has now dropped to 32,000 bpd from its peak output level of 50,000 bpd in the middle of last year.

The block was taken over from PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia by local firm PT Bumi Siak Pusako last year, after Caltex's contract expired. However, the shareholders of Bumi Siak, which includes Pertamina and local regental and provincial administrations, had been locked in a dispute over the revenue sharing mechanism, causing serious delays in making crucial investments needed to maintain production.

Oil and gas are among the country's major export commodities.

Analysts have said that if the government does not move quickly to boost production, it may have a serious implication on the state budget.

I'in did not specify which gas blocks had suffered a decline in production, but previous reports show that oil and gas companies in the resource-rich province of Aceh often stopped production activities amid fears of a shoot-out between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).