How much? doubts hang over how much oil is at Jeruk
'Jeruk reserves shrink'
Indonesian oil and gas watchdog BP Migas said today that it believed reserves at the Jeruk oil discovery, off east Java, may be only half the earlier forecast of 170 million barrels.
BP Migas deputy chief Achmad Luthfi told Reuters the agency has asked Santos to certify the reserves at the Jeruk field soon.
"Jeruk is still on the phase of exploration, but the reserves seem to be far from expected. It may be only half of a previous forecast of 170 million barrels," Luthfi told the news agency in an interview.
"We don't want any misunderstanding in future. Therefore, we want Santos to certify the reserves at Jeruk before developing it."
Santos, which has been testing oil found at its Jeruk-3 appraisal well, said last month it would likely reduce its reserves estimate for the oil discovery.
It said the height of the Jeruk hydrocarbon column was probably only 145 metres, compared with a previous estimate of 379 metres, but that further testing was required to fully determine reserve levels.
Drilling began at Jeruk-3 in January following ambiguous results and indications of complex geology from Jeruk-1 and -2 in 2004.
Kathryn Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Jeruk operator Santos, told Upstream that the 170 million barrel figure was a pre-drill estimate.
She added: "Santos has still not committed to a reserve figure. While we are disappointed that Jeruk is smaller than originally thought, we will now use the data from (the Jeruk-3 well) and look at the further appraisal of the field."
Meanwhile, industry sources cautioned against presuming the reserves at the field have been cut by 50% simply because the hydrocarbon column has halved in size.