The minister said the recent decline in oil production had been caused more by unplanned shutdowns.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Saleh has promised to increase the country`s crude oil production as requested by Vice President Boediono.
"The request of the vice president is a challenge," the minister said here on Wednesday.
He said his ministry and the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulating Agency (BP Migas) would cooperate closely to raise national oil production.
The minister said the recent decline in oil production had been caused more by unplanned shutdowns. "We will ask contractors to reduce the number of shutdowns," he said.
He said that the long-term challenge was how to speed up the production increase through enhanced oil recovery (EOR) efforts such the use of surfactant in the field of PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI).
"We have applied the EOR sytem but we still need time to carry it out perfectly. If that already happens oil production will peak in the 2025-2030 period," he said.
Earlier, Vice President Boediono expressed concern over the decline in the country`s oil production and has asked BP Migas to pay serious attention to it.
He said the oil sector had shown its good performance because oil production in Indonesia is declining.
"There is a sector I am not happy about namely our oil sector which is performing well. Oil production has dropped," he said in his address at the opening of the 35th Indonesia Petroleum Association (IPA) Convention and Exhibition.
He said the drop in the oil production could affect badly on the security of fuel oil supply, exports and state budget. The vice president said in the past few years oil exploration activities have dropped.
The rate of oil explorations is still far short of the need to increase production to achieve the production target of 1.2 million barrels a day.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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