Pekanbaru (ANTARA News) - The Joint Operation Body (BOB) of PT Bumi Siak Pusako and PT Pertamina Hulu overshot its crude oil production target from the Coastal Plain Pekanbaru (CPP) block turning out 14,000 barrels of oil per day on the average this year.

So far production is already more than 108 percent of the target set for 2015, general manager of BOB of BSP-Pertamina Hulu, Susanto B. Nugroho, said here on Tuesday.

BSP is company owned by the regional administration of Riau.

Susanto said the BOB was given a production target of 12,700 barrels per day for 2015 by the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulator (SKK Migas).

He said the performance was encouraging amid the shrinking price of crude oil that discouraged explorations since 2014.

He said the more than expected production in the Coastal Plain Pekanbaru block is not caused by the discovery of new reserve, but on success in optimization of the wells.

The company operates the same number of 268 wells with greater efficiency of technology to reduce natural decline in productivity, he said.

"We reduce the natural decline in productivity from normally 20 percent to only 7 percent per year," he said.

The company optimized the secondary recovery system by adding water injection in its water flooding technology to pump out more oil, he added.

He said the same method would be used in 2016 as the management think explorations for new oil reserves would not be feasible amid the falling prices of oil in international market.

The company also has to close wells with production below 5 barrels per day for cost efficiency.

The management, therefore, would set production target high for 2016 despite the success in exceeding production in 2015.

"The production target for 2016 is set only at 12,300 barrels per day," he said.

The BOB of BSP-Pertamina was assigned by the government to operate the CPP block on 6 August 2002 for 20 years until 2022.

Previously, the block was operated by PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia turning out 99,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak performance in 1984.

In the following years, the production continued to decline naturally with no new deposit found in the block.

"Now the production under BOB of BSP-Pertamina is only 14,000 barrels per day," Susanto said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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