Susilo to officiate 13 oil, gas projects
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Breathing new life into the industry, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will on Friday officially launch 13 oil and gas projects, which will add some 53,800 barrels of oil per day to the country's output by next year.
The projects comprise the development of 12 oil fields and a pipeline, involving large multi-national oil companies such as BP, Total and PetroChina. The total value of the 13 projects are valued at US$1.2 billion.
"The projects to be officiated are mostly new fields," chairman of the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency Kardaya Warnika said on Tuesday.
Some of the fields have already started operating, as early as July last year. The last to begin pumping oil is Pertamina and PetroChina's Joint Operation Body (JOB) in Salawati, Papua, which will begin producing 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November.
The other oil fields include Betara III, operated by PetroChina, that started producing 9,500 bpd of oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in August. 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 come from Total's Peciko Phase IV field in Kutai Kertanegara, East Kalimantan.
Despite being an oil producer, Indonesia finds itself unable to reap windfall profits from the current sky-high oil prices as output has steadily declined over the past five years, while domestic gasoline and diesel fuel consumption has been rising.
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.
Kardaya said on Sept. 5 that crude and condensate production would stand at 1.11 million bpd on average next year, 5 percent higher than the expected full year figures for 2005.
At the end of next year, the operation of a number of new fields are expected to raise production to 1.115 million bpd.
To meet domestic demand, Indonesia has to import 400,000 bpd of crude and 300,000 bpd of refined fuel products.