Jakarta thinks outside PSC box
Indonesia will consider new contracts not based on its traditional production
sharing contract model, according to Ministry of Energy & Mineral
Resources director general of oil and gas Luluk Sumiarso.
"We welcome any suggestion [from contractors] to improve PSC terms and
also other contract terms will be considered," Luluk told an industry
breakfast at the Offshore Technology Conference.
Indonesia last year signed 27 production sharing contracts with a combined
commitment exploration expenditure of $649 million in the initial three-year
phase.
These exploration plans include seismic and drilling in frontier and
under-explored areas such as ExxonMobil's Surumana and Mandar blocks in the
Makassar Strait.
The US supermajor has already acquired 2D and 3D seismic over this acreage and
will in October drill its first well there.
Details of the acreage to be offered in the country's 2008 licensing round
will be unveiled later this month at the Indonesian Petroleum Association
conference in Jakarta.
Indonesia, Asia's only Opec member, saw oil output last year slump to an
average 836,000 barrels per day compared to 883,000 bpd in the previous year
and 934,800 in 2005.
The nation is pinning its hopes on new discoveries to help stop this crude
production decline and to find new gas reserves that can be exploited for
both domestic and overseas customers.
Luluk admitted that shorter terms production increases would likely come from
new fields given that Indonesia's incentive terms for mature and marginal
fields "were not attractive enough".
He added that the government's target of boosting output by 30% over 2005
levels by 2009 was "unrealistic".
"However it is realistic to maintain production or increase it by
between 6% and 10% per year," said Luluk.
07 May 2008 18:49 GMT
| last updated:
07 May 2008 18:57 GMT
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