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xxonMobil Oil Indonesia, the local subsidiary of US-based oil and gas company ExxonMobil, plans to drill 20 exploration wells at its three coal bed methane (CBM) fields in South Kalimantan.

The firm’s exploration public affairs manager, Vasta Choesin, told reporters at a media gathering on Thursday that the drilling was part of a project to assess if the blocks would be economically feasible for further development.

ExxonMobil has secured the government’s contracts to develop three CBM fields — Banjar-1, Banjar-2 and Tapin.

“We started the drilling process in March, and so far we have drilled at least two wells at Banjar-1 block,” he said. “After three years, we will have enough information to decide whether to further develop the site or not.”

According to him, it is still too early to estimate the potential CBM reserves at the three blocks or to determine when actual production would start.

“We are still in the early stage of exploration. There are still a lot of steps we’ll have to go through to find out whether the blocks can actually produce CBM, let alone the amount of the CBM reserves they contain and when actual production can begin,” he said.

He said that in CBM exploration, a series of pilot tests were needed, more than oil and gas exploration, because CBM was a new, unconventional resource with exploration and extraction processes more complex than that of oil or gas.

“CBM exploration is still a new thing for Indonesia and for ExxonMobil,” he said.

Apart from the three blocks in South Kalimantan, the company was also exploring possible CBM blocks in Germany, he said.

“We are also still in the exploration stage in Germany,” he said.

According to Vasta, the company cooperated with PT Sugico in exploring the three South Kalimantan blocks.

“Sugico holds a 51 percent share, while we hold the remaining 49 percent,” he said.

Vasta said that the company could not disclose any investment-related numbers regarding the exploration project. Indonesia has one of the world’s largest CBM reserves, which is estimated to be around 450 trillion cubic feet (TCF), approximately three times the size of its natural gas reserves.

Apart from ExxonMobil, France-based Total and UK-based British Petroleum (BP), local companies PT Medco Energi International and Pertamina are also exploring for future CBM mines.

Reuters reported that the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry had awarded BP Indonesia Exploration three CBM blocks in Central Kalimantan and Total one block in East Kalimantan. (mim)