TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government is striving to maintain the oil production to be at least 800,000 barrels per day.
"We want [oil production] to increase. But, right now the focus is to prevent production from falling," Energy and Mineral Resources Deputy Minister Arcandra Tahar said at his office in Jakarta on Friday, February 17, 2017.
To maintain the productivity, the government will commence a five-year acceleration program starting from 2018 aimed at identifying new technology to be implemented in all existing wells. The government will also join force with the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKK Migas) and oil and gas cooperation contract holders (KKKS) to roll out the acceleration program.
Without the acceleration program, Arcandra predicted that the production would continue to decline. Data from SKK Migas revealed that the oil and gas production by 2020 is estimated to drop to 600,000 per day.
Arcandra revealed that the decline in oil production would be unavoidable since existing wells are getting older, and it would take at least 15 years to produce oil from new oil wells. According to Arcandra, the condition is caused by a number of regulations on exploration and exploitation activities to be complied with.
Such regulations mainly govern license not issued by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, "such as permit for lands in forest areas or palm oil plantations," according to Arcandra.
VINDRY FLORENTIN
