Indonesia likely to miss 2009's oil output target

JAKARTA (Xinhua) — Indonesia may fall short of this year’s oil-production target of 960,000 barrels per day due to technical problem, a media reported here Saturday.

Head of upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas, Raden Priyono quoted by the Jakarta globe as saying that the total crude and condensate output is likely to reach only 950,000 bpd this year.

The failure of the Cepu field on the border of Central and EastJava to reach an average output of 20,000 bpd was one factor, he added.

“Aside from Cepu, there were many unplanned shut-downs because of bad weather as well as technical hitches,” Raden said. “Lengthy bureaucracy in relation to land-use approval also reduced the output.”

Analysts blamed the failure to meet the target on the inability of the government to ramp up exploration and production.

Xinhua