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ajor oil and gas companies say they will be unable to meet the President'€™s target of 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) because of low production rates and idle blocks.

Upstream watchdog SKKMigas head Rudi Rubiandini said on Tuesday that the country was likely to produce 870,000 bpd throughout next year. The estimate was 13 percent lower than President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s administration'€™s target of 1.01 million bpd in 2014 as specified in a 2012 presidential instruction on increasing the national oil output.

'€œThe nation'€™s output might reach 900,000 bpd if production at the Banyu Urip field in the Cepu block in East Java can start in June '€” this is the most optimistic assumption,'€ said Rudi, who was accompanied by senior executives of top oil and gas contractors in Indonesia, during a hearing with members of the House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing energy affairs.

However, should the American giant ExxonMobil-operated Banyu Urip field not achieve full production until next October the country'€™s entire output would only reach 880,000 bpd, said Rudi.

State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina may also fail to produce an additional 10,000 bpd next year because it will not start its studies on how to run its enhanced oil recovery (EOR) program, to increase the amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field, until later this month.

The government is banking on the Cepu block to boost the nation'€™s crude oil output to around 1 million bpd in 2014, in conjunction with the election year that will mark the end of Yudhoyono'€™s presidency.

Newly appointed ExxonMobil Indonesia president director Jon M. Gibbs said the company was currently '€œexperiencing some schedule pressure'€ in relation to permits but still working to maximize the 2014 production. He, however, refused to comment on the firm'€™s estimate for next year'€™s production.

Peak production from the Banyu Urip field, estimated to be around 165,000 bpd, was initially slated to be achieved in May 2014 but the process has been stalled since 2011 largely due to land-acquisition issues.

Currently, the block produces around 24,000 bpd of crude oil, making ExxonMobil Indonesia currently the eighth-largest oil producer in the country.

Meanwhile, US-based ConocoPhillips Indonesia president director Eric Isaacson said his team was still discussing the target of 29,000 bpd of oil next year set by SKKMigas, with the regulator because the company '€œis currently experiencing an aggressive decline rate right now'€, among other issues.

In total, according to SKKMigas, Indonesia will produce 840,000 bpd this year, lower than the previous target of 857,000 bpd.