The government is advised to invite junior companies (small companies) that focus on oil and gas exploration activities. This is because the discovery of significant oil and gas reserves is the key to achieving the target of producing 1 million barrels of oil per day (BPD) by 2030.
Practitioners of Oil and Gas Tumbur Parlindungan revealed that large oil and gas companies rarely voluntarily disburse large funds for large-scale exploration activities. This can be seen from the lack of large oil and gas companies participating in the management of new oil and gas blocks through auctions held by the government.
For this reason, he advised the government to invite junior companies to look for potential oil and gas reserves in the country. This is because, in the world, junior companies usually focus on finding oil and gas reserves to be sold to large oil and gas companies. He gave an example, the discovery of large gas at Tangguh was actually carried out by Arco. However, BP, which is now the operator there, acquired the company.
"We need to invite small companies but want to take exploration risks. We need pioneers who want to drill, we need players who want to play exploration, big companies focus above 100 million barrels and above, "said Tumbur.
According to him, data on oil and gas reserves owned by Indonesia are currently difficult to compete with other regions. At present, large oil and gas companies are actually targeting Africa, which has proven oil and gas reserves in large quantities. This will only happen in Indonesia if there are 11 proven huge oil and gas reserves.
"The company will come if the reserves are proven large," said Tumbur.
Tumbur explained, large companies such as Shell, Chevron, Exxon, and Total would not be interested in oil and gas reserves whose volumes were less than 100 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Furthermore, companies such as HESS, ConocoPhillips, and National Oil Company (NOC) such as Petronas, PTTEP Thailand, Repsol, will only glance at one area if the reserves are more than 50 million barrels of oil equivalent.
In fact, he continued, the flow of foreign investment funds is very important so that exploration activities can run massively in Indonesia.
"We see that our oil and gas block auction is not very large, so it will not be in demand by large companies," he said.
On the other hand, the success of finding oil and gas reserves (success ratio) in Indonesia is still less than 50%. This could also be an obstacle to achieving the 1 million BPD oil production target. He gave an example, the findings of oil and gas in Ande-Ande Lumut could be one of the big findings, but the problem of monetization and the use of technology could hamper its development.
Referring to the data of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), the number of the signing of production sharing contracts (PSCs) from oil and gas block auction results has been relatively low since 2015. In 2015, the government signed 8 PSCs. But afterward, although the auction was still held, in 2016-2017, not a single PSC was signed. Furthermore, as many as 11 PSCs were signed in 2018 and 6 PSCs last year. In fact, the signing of the PSC in Indonesia touched 26 contracts in 2011.
Inline, the realization of national oil and gas exploration investment has also been relatively low since 2015. In 2015, the realization of exploration investment was recorded to still reach the US $ 970 million. However, this exploration investment continues to decline to the US $ 916.2 million in 2016, US $ 576.55 million in 2017, and rose to the US $ 786.18 million in 2018. In fact, exploration investment in Indonesia once touched the US $ 3, 05 billion in 2013.
Must be planned
Another strategy from the government to reach the target of 1 million BPD is through enhanced oil recovery (EOR) activities. According to Tumbur, this EOR activity must be planned from the beginning in the development of an oil and gas block. The reason is that EOR activities will not be effective and will require large costs if they are only carried out when the oil and gas reserves of an oil and gas block are almost gone.
"During the decline, the energy strategy has been lost. If it was only EOR at that time, the cost was more expensive. EOR continues improvement, there are pilots from the start. If it's already [production] road it's difficult to run, "said Tumbur.
The Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas) once made an additional projection of oil production from EOR activities. Referring to the projection, the newly initiated EOR activities can significantly increase oil production starting in 2025. Referring to the data, national oil production is projected to only be 281 thousand BPD by 2030 if no EOR activities are carried out. However, if the EOR is successfully implemented, oil production can be bent to 520 thousand BPD that year.
However, at present, the EOR activities are still in the pilot phase. PT Pertamina (Persero) through Pertamina EP has implemented EOR in Tanjung Field. The company has also signed the points of understanding between Pertamina and Repsol for full-scale management, including the implementation of surfactant-polymer EOR. In the Jirak and Rantau Fields, Pertamina is conducting a study of the application of surfactant chemicals for the implementation of EOR in both fields.
Furthermore, related to CO2 flooding, Pertamina is currently conducting studies in several fields, namely Jatibarang, Sukowati, and Ramba. Pertamina also expanded this EOR activity to the oil and gas block managed by PT Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE), namely in the North West Java Offshore Block, precisely in the Zulu Field and E-Main. In addition, in the near future the Batang field, which is operated by PHE Siak, will be an EOR steam flooding pilot project.
Investor Daily, Page-9, Thursday, May 9, 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment