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AKARTA: After a vessel fire near its Southeast Sumatra offshore block two months ago, upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas says that China-based CNOOC has resumed operations by producing 10,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

Since the resumption two weeks ago, the production capacity had not returned to the normal level of around 16,000 bpd because of limited electricity supply, BPMigas deputy for operations Rudi Rubiandini said on Wednesday.

“The damaged Floating Storage and Offloading [FSO] unit was also CNOOC’s electricity generator site. The generator had to be removed, but the process will take months since there should be a tender first and the company also needs to prepare a rig for the generator,” he said.

BPMigas spokesperson Gde Pradnyana added that the electricity supply disturbance had hampered operations in the northern part of the block. The block has four fields; Widuri, Intan, Aida and Indri. CNOOC operates three oil and gas blocks in the country; the Batang Hari block in Jambi, the Southeast Sumatra offshore, and the Southeast Palung Aru block in the Arafuru Sea. /Rangga Fadhilah