Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Thu, May 24, 2012
Archive Search

Exxon to Explore Makassar Strait In Search of Oil
Ririn Radiawati Kusuma | January 10, 2012

Share This Page
2
11
0
0
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

Be the first to write your opinion!

US-based oil and gas company Exxon Mobil through its local subsidiary plans to continue exploring the deep water sea in Makassar Strait in a bid to find petroleum reserves despite last year’s exploration not yielding a significant discovery, a company executive said.

Exxon Mobil Indonesia operates two blocks in Makassar Strait: Surumana block, for which a contract was signed in September 2006, and Mandar block, which was secured in 2007.

Exxon joined forces with Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas Carigali on both blocks, with Exxon owning 80 percent.

Asep Sulaeman, a senior vice president at Exxon Mobil Indonesia, said on Tuesday that last year Exxon drilled four wells in the strait, but so far there have not been reserves of a sufficiently economical size, he said.

Asep explained that at the site, deep sea water exploration — which is more than 2,000 meters deep — is considered high risk and costly. The cost to drill a single well runs around $90 million to $100 million.

“It is risky, but we believe there is a big prospect there. We will evaluate and note the lessons learned over what we have done,” Asep said.

Apart from undergoing the exploration project in Makassar Strait, Exxon is also exploring an offshore area in Papua in conjunction with Niko Resources, a Canadian company. Currently Exxon is performing geological exploration in the area.

Exxon, through its subsidiary Mobil Cepu, also operates an early production facility at the Banyu Urip oil field.

It aims to boost oil production to 25,000 barrel per day from its current production of 20,000 bpd.

Exxon also runs the Arun field in Aceh and the North Sumatra offshore offshore gas field.

Bruce Page, operational manager at Exxon Mobil Indonesia, said on Tuesday that Exxon expected production of gas at the Arun field to decline 20 percent to 337 million standard cubic feet per day this year from 462 mmscfd in 2011.