Jakarta, July 7 (ANTARA) - The government and the House of Representatives (DPR) have agreed to set the oil lifting target for the revised 2011 budget at 945,000 barrels a day.

The agreement was reached at a meeting between the DPR`s Commission VII and the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Darwin Saleh here on Thursday.

"We hope the target this time will not be missed," he said.

The meeting also agreed on the assumption for the Indonesia Crude Price (ICP) for the revised budget which was set at US$95 per barrel.

According to the 2011 budget the oil lifting was set at 970,000 barrels a day but the realization until today reached only 905,000 barrels a day.

Based on that the government and the DPR agreed to set the assumption for the revised budget at 945,000 barrels a day, Teuku Riefky Harsya who presided over the meeting said.

Darwin meanwhile expressed his office`s readiness to meet the target. He admitted that that was not an easy job.

He said he would make breakthrough policies to overcome obstacles that hinder the achievement of the target such as on overlapping land ownership.

He said BP Migas as the oil and gas upstream executive agency indeed tended to be pessimistic.

"While we as a policy maker certainly must be optimistic so that we could give the best to the budget," he said.

Before the meeting with the House Commission BP Migas Chief R Priyono estimated that oil production in 2011 would only reach 920,000 barrels a day.

"Production will not meet the estimate because realization of several projects has been hindered. This is the fact we are technically facing in the field," he said.

According to earlier estimates production in April was expected to reach 914,735, in May 919,635 and June 931,798 barrels a day but the realization was only 905,343 in April, 904,184 in May and even 893,555 in June, he said.

Priyono said production could be made to reach 945,000 barrels a day with optimizing production through out of the box policies.

The drastic policies could increase production from 920,000 to 945,000 barrels a day or by 25,000 barrels a day.

He said the policies include acceleration of investment and operations at PT Pertamina EP with an additional production by 9,000 barrels a day, of drilling land acquisition at PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia with potential additional production of 3,000 barrels a day and provision of processing facility at Mobil Cepu Ltd. with an additional production of 3,000 barrels a day.

Other include acceleration of production equipment repair at Total EP Indonesie with an additional production of 3,000 barrels a day, accelerating licensing on road use by the district head at PT Sele Raya with an additional production of 2,000 barrels a day and acceleration of rig procurement at PT PHE ONWJ with an additional production of 1,000 barrels a day.

Still other include acceleration of rig procurement at PT PHE WMO with an additional production of 1,000 barrels a day, land acquisition at PT PHE PPEJ with an additional production of 1,000 barrels a day and acceleration of procurement at FSO Kangean Energy with an additional production of 1,000 barrels a day.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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