Norman Harsono, Jakarta – State-owned energy company Pertamina expects to close this year with an oil and gas production of 910,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boped), up 18.4 percent from its output last year.
Pertamina upstream director Dharmawan H. Samsu said in a statement on Tuesday that the company "expects [overall national] production to remain relatively stable from last year" and was therefore optimistic it could reach this year's production target.
The company aims to produce 923,000 boepd of oil and gas next year and around 1 million boepd the following year, in line with Pertamina's long-term development plan (RJPP) for 2020-2026.
Dharmawan added that Pertamina's biggest challenge was to maintain production levels at its existing oil and gas fields despite natural decline rates of up to 50 percent.
Pertamina, like many other oil and gas companies in Indonesia, relies on exploiting aging oil and gas fields to meet production targets as the industry struggles to make new oil and gas discoveries amid sluggish upstream investment.
"Maintaining a stable decline against a backdrop of heavy natural decline shows the significance of our intense [oil and gas] innovation," said Dharmawan.