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etronas Carigali Ketapang Ltd. says it will begin the first oil production from its Bukit Tua field at the Ketapang block on the north coast of East Java around March or April.

Petronas Carigali Ketapang general manager Hazli Sham B. Kassim said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the company was still carrying out the oil drilling process. '€œWe expect the first oil around March or April,'€ he said as quoted by Antara news agency in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Hazli said in the first stage, Bukit Tua'€™s production was expected to reach between 3,000 and 4,000 barrels per day.

'€œIt is expected that production will increase in stages until it peaks at 20,000 barrels per day in October,'€ he added.

The Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) says Bukit Tua will also produce 20 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of oil in the first stage and is expected to reach a peak at 60 mmscfd.

The construction of Ratu Nusantara, Bukit Tua'€™s floating production storage and off loading (FPSO) facility, has been completed at Keppel dockyard in Singapore in October 2014.

The FSPO, with 233 meters in length, 43 m in width and 20 m in height, has a capacity to process 25,000 barrels of oil, 77 mmscfd of gas and 20,000 barrels of water per day.

This facility is designed to store processed oil amounting to 630,000 barrels before it is channeled to the tanker vessels of buyers.