Pipeline woes: have forced ExxonMobil to shut in output from the Cepu Block
Pipe problems halt Cepu flows
ExxonMobil has temporarily halted output from the Cepu Block, one of Indoensia's biggest oil finds in a decade, because of pipeline problems, an official from the country's energy watchdog said today.
The giant Cepu Block in central Java, which is being jointly developed by ExxonMobil and Indonesian state oil company Pertamina, began initial production last December with a volume of around 800 barrels per day .
"Cepu production has been temporary stopped in March because the pipeline facilities for crude delivery have not been permitted by the regional government in Tuban, East Java," Edi Purwanto, deputy head of the watchdog, BPMigas, told Reuters.
"Cepu cannot continue production without a channel for its crude to be delivered," he said, without specifying when the problem would be resolved.
Purwanto said Cepu had capacity to produce around 20,000 bpd, but it was only producing around 100 bpd when it was stopped.
Cepu, which ranks among the US supermajor's top 10 projects worldwide, is expected to produce 165,000 bpd when to reaches peak output in 2012.
Indonesia hopes the project will help arrest a sharp slide in Indonesia's crude production as ageing fields struggle to maintain output.
Indonesia's crude production dropped to 832,200 bpd in March, compared with 844,300 bpd in February and against around 1.5 million bpd in the 1990s.