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T Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI), the country’s largest oil producer, announced on Thursday that it planned to double oil production at the Minas field in Riau by applying enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology.

CPI vice president for policy, government and public affairs Yanto Sianipar told reporters on Thursday that Chevron was currently installing the necessary infrastructure to apply the technology. He estimated that the company could start field trials next year.

“We’ll inject surfactant to erode oil that is stuck in the reservoirs. We hope to double our production at the field from the current 70,000 barrels per day [bpd],” he said on the sidelines of a discussion session.

He added that the EOR method using surfactant was developed in universities in Indonesia a while ago and several companies had already tried to utilize the technology. However, due to the expense of the initial investment, it was not widely adopted in the country, he added.

“The technology is expensive. The price of surfactant is also very high. The investment may reach nearly US$7 billion,” Yanto said.

If the field trial is a success, CPI will crank up the production of the Minas field to around 140,000 bpd in 2014, he said.

He said that the surfactant the company used for the trial would be imported.

However, he added that the company would open opportunities for local companies to supply the chemical content in the future so that the price could be significantly lower.

According to upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas, as of early September, CPI produced 357,759 bpd in the first quarter of this year, exceeding the target of 356,818 bpd. The 2011 revised state budget set a production target of 945,000 bpd. Initially the target was 970,000 bpd.

Previously, BPMigas told Chevron to produce 370,000 bpd before being revised down. However, Yanto said the initial target of 370,000 bpd was “a bit unrealistic” without giving reasons.

Yanto said his company had successfully slowed the naturally declining production from 12 percent to only 5 percent by aggressively drilling more wells, the development of Area 12 at the Duri field and applying EOR technologies.

This year, the company expected to drill around 700 wells, the same amount as last year, he said.

However, he declined to disclose at what stage the drilling projects were. “Everything is on track,” he said.

Chevron faced several problems in executing its planned projects, such as delayed permission issuances, difficult land acquisition and overlapping authority among government institutions involved in the oil and gas sector, Yanto said.

“In the future, the investment climate in the sector must be improved. The sanctity of the production sharing contract [PSC] is important. Now, there are some regulations that may clash with the PSC,” he said.

For instance, in June, the Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA) requested a judicial review of the government decree on cost recovery.

Most oil and gas companies operating in the country were afraid that the decree could clash with the PSCs they signed with the government.