Susilo officiates 13 oil and gas fields

Susilo officiates 13 oil and gas fields

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Jambi

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is reiterating calls for
energy conservation and diversification amid the country's
steadily declining oil production, saying that without such
efforts, Indonesia will face a serious energy crisis eventually.

For a long time people seemed to consider the mineral
resources here unlimited, the President said in his speech at a
ceremony to launch 13 oil and gas projects in Jambi on Friday.

"In fact, if there are no new discoveries, the oil reserves
will run out in 18 years," said Susilo.

"We have to start thinking now how to maintain the
sustainability of production."

The government urges the use gas and coal, which are available
in abundance in the country, as well as bio-diesel, he said.
Energy conservation is also needed, as Indonesians are used to
spending more fuel than necessary due to the low prices.

The new projects, which are estimated to add 53,700 barrels of
oil per day to the country's crude and condensate outputs with
investments reaching US$1.2 billion, were important to increase
production, he said.

With the production of giant fields like Cepu and Jeruk in
East Java, as well as other smaller fields, Indonesia will be
able to slow down the production's natural decline.

"Within two or three years, hopefully our production will rise
to between 1.25 million barrels per day (bpd) and 1.3 bpd," he
said.

Indonesia, where 90 percent of the producing fields have
passed their peak production, is seeing a decline in output of
about 5 percent annually.

The country's output has plunged from 1.52 million bpd in 1999
to an estimated 1.075 million bpd on average throughout this
year, due mostly to limited exploration and aging oil fields.

The projects launched comprise the development of 12 oil
fields, including those of large multinational oil companies such
as BP, Total and PetroChina and a pipeline of state oil and gas
firm PT Pertamina.

The fields started production between July last year and
November this year. The bigger production outputs include
Pertamina and PetroChina's Joint Operation Body (JOB) in
Salawati, Papua, with 15,000 bpd, and in Salawati, Papua, with
12,900 bpd.

PetroChina's Betara III field in Jambi will produce 9,500 bpd
and the equivalent of 16,500 barrels of oil per day in the form
of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), while Kodeco's KE-40 field in
Bangkalan, East Java, and Pertamina-Medco's JOB in Tiaka, Central
Sulawesi, will produce 5,000 bpd each.

Aside from producing oil, the fields will also generate 1.53
billion standard cubic feet of natural gas per day, of which most
comes from Total's Peciko Phase IV field in Kutai Kertanegara,
East Kalimantan.

Pertamina's planned pipeline, with an investment of $16.2
million, will connect and channel 15,000 bpd of oil from its
field in Tambun, West Java, to Cilamaya in the province.