0 Pertamina’s Bunyu Oil Reserves Rise 6m Barrels

State-owned energy firm Pertamina has found an additional 6 million barrels in oil reserves at its assets in Bunyu Island in the new province of North Kalimantan, the company’s executive said on Friday. Statoto Agustono, the general manager for Eastern Indonesia at subsidiary Pertamina EP, said that the assets’ oil reserves currently stand at 31 million barrels, while last year the figure was 25 million barrels. Situated in a delta area, the Bunyu oil reservoirs are widely spread and disjointed, Statoto explained, making the attempt to estimate the real amount of reserves more difficult. 

“There’s a case of a reservoir that we estimated contained 1.5 million barrels of oil, but there was oil left even after [the cumulative output] was 2 million barrels.” The Bunyu working area has been pumping oil since 1901, and is one of the oldest in the country. Oil from Bunyu can still be pumped naturally. Statoto said the current oil output from the area is around 7,420 barrels per day. He added that Pertamina plans to spend Rp 502 billion ($52 million) on eight more wells in the area this year. Aside from the Bunyu working area, Pertamina EP also handles two more assets: one in Eastern Kalimantan and another in West Papua. 

Last year the oil output from these three assets was 10,348 barrels per day in total. S tatoto estimated that this year’s output would be 10,000 barrels per day, which is a slight decline from last year, although it is still higher than the target set by oil and gas regulator SKMigas of 9,578 barrels per day. Rudi Rubiandini, chief of SKMigas, said on Thursday that he was optimistic that Pertamina would improve its performance so that the country’s total oil production would increase. He described Pertamina as “the backbone” of the country’s oil production. 

Indonesia’s oil production hit peaks during the primary recovery period in 1977, and the secondary recovery periods in 1995, with production reaching as high as 1.6 million barrels per day. Production fell to 1 million barrels per day in 2003 and the continued gradual decline due to aging fields and lack of investment eventually led the country to leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2008. Official statistics show Pertamina is one of the few oil and gas firms in the country able to keep its output rising. From 2011 to 2012, Pertamina increased its output by 5 percent, to 203,000 barrels per day. 

The company is this year aiming to produce 244,000 barrels of oil per day, a 20 percent increase. Pertamina’s domestic rivals include Chevron Pacific Indonesia and Total E&P Indonesie. Pertamina earlier this week said it expected its profit to increase by more than 10 percent this year, backed by improvements in efficiency and corporate governance. The Jakarta-based company forecast net income up 11 percent to $3.05 billion in 2013 from the year before.

source : the jakarta globe