All of the projects were expected to start construction work before the first week of February, BPMigas chairman R. Priyono said in a statement.

Two of the projects are the development of Tunu Phase 11 and the Tunu Phase 12 gas fields, operated by a  subsidiary of Paris-based Total SA, Total E&P Indonesie, in the Mahakam delta block, East Kalimantan.  The two fields are expected to produce 630 million cubic feet gas per day with a required investment plan amounting to $663 million.

BPMigas also announced two more upstream gas projects that would commence  soon.

Both projects are surface facilities. The first project in the Seturian field is operated by the Chevron Indonesia Company in East Kalimantan, while the second project is Phase 2 of the Oyong field, operated by Santos in the Madura Strait and Pasuruan, both in East Java.

The Seturian facilities are designed to produce 35 million cubic feet of gas per day with Chevron’s investment in the project estimated to reach $22.2 million.

The development of the Oyong field Phase 2 will absorb $58 million of  investment funds. The field is expected to produce up to 80 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Finally two more projects are expected to be started soon, these being an oil treatment facility and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility operated by Hess in Gresik, East Java.

With an investment plan of $165.7 million for the two projects Hess expects to produce 25,000 barrels
of oil per day (bpd) and 6,000 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Priyono said the six projects listed would be the major upstream investment projects for this year.

“Some of these projects are very  critical to helping meet the new national production targets,”he said.

BPMigas is upbeat about improving its image following its failure to meet national oil production
targets last year. Oil production in 2009 was only 949,000 bpd, lower than the state budget target of 960,000 bpd.

Priyono had said that the failure to reach the oil production target last year was particularly caused by unscheduled halts to operations and lack of new oil field development.

Despite this failure, however, the government has still set a higher oil production target of 965,000 bpd for 2010.

There are currently 232 oil and gas contractors operating in Indonesia. As many as 64 of these contractors are now in the production stage, while the remaining 168 contractors are still in the exploration stage.

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