Pertamina EP to Focus on Exploration

Pertamina Exploration and Production, a subsidiary of state energy firm Pertamina, will be focusing on exploration this year and plans to set aside 20 percent of its annual budget to exploration programs. 

Company’s director for exploration and development, Doddy Priambodo said that $300 million would be dedicated to exploration alone in 2013, Jakarta Globe reported.

Pertamina EP plans to drill 28 exploration wells in 2013 in an effort to discover 612 million barrels of oil-equivalent (mmboe) in reserves from the effort, Doddy said. 

He added that Pertamina EP had drilled 83 exploration wells since 2008 with an 80 percent success ratio. “We have initiated production in 50 percent of wells from successful exploration activities.” 

One of the company’s findings was from the Akasia Bagus well in Indramayu, West Java, that Doddy called the largest discovery in the past 10 years, Jakarta Globe news report said. The field contains 110 mmboe in oil and gas reserves. 

Doddy said Akasia Bagus is expected to go full-stream in the next three years. 

Pertamina EP also discovered 367 billion cubic feet in natural gas reserves from Benggala field in North Sumatra last year, expected to go on stream in September.