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pstream oil and gas authority BPMigas reported over the weekend that as of April the agency had approved plans of development (POD) for eight oil and gas fields, seven of which would begin production this year.

BPMigas planning deputy Haposan Napitupulu revealed the fields were Vita Laras (operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation), Karang Luhur (Pertamina EP), Petapahan, Duri (Chevron Pacific Indonesia), Pondok Berkah (Pertamina EP), Kepodang (Petronas), North Klalin (PetroChina) and North Central Java.

“Except Kepodang, all of the fields will start production in 2012,” he said in Jakarta. “This year there will be 45 PODs and put-on-production [POP] proposals which will be approved by BPMigas. It’s not a target because everything is up to oil and gas contractors, if they propose we’ll process it,” he added.

According to the agency’s data, from the 45 fields or wells which will be developed, Indonesia will enjoy additional oil output of 13,270 barrels per day (bpd). As for gas, production may hit 580 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).

Based on the data, North Klalin began production in March with a total output of 95 bpd of oil and 1.7 mmscfd of gas, followed by Vita Laras in August with 386 bpd of oil, Karang Luhur also in August with 225 bpd and 2.5 mmscfd, Pondok Berkah in September with 194 bpd and 2.6 mmscfd and Duri in December with 14 bpd.

As reported earlier, BPMigas head Raden Priyono promised his agency would process project planning proposals (POD and POP) as fast as possible to help the country boost oil and gas production, considering last year’s failure to achieve the production target.

In 2011, BPMigas approved a total of 41 project plans estimated to add 301.7 million barrels of oil and 4 trillion standard cubic feet of gas to the country’s reserves.

The projects comprised seven planned PODs for new fields, 13 PODs for existing fields, five long-term PODs and 11 production acceleration projects, or POP proposals.

BPMigas claimed it was trying to create a corporate culture that was less bureaucratic to accelerate the project plans approval. The agency had been committed to process each approval in 31 working days, but by the end of the year, the average time needed to complete the approval was only 13 days,
Pradnyana said.

For POP proposals, the average time needed to complete an approval was 10 working days, faster than the initial target of 21 days.

Accelerating POD and POP approval will be vital to Indonesia’s attempt to ramp up its oil and gas production.

As of the end of April, the country’s oil production was only 880,674 bpd of oil, far below the target of 930,000 bpd, while gas production reached 8,560 mmscfd.

In addition to cutting the bureaucratic process in the POD and POP approval, BPMigas has also urged all oil and gas contractors to apply enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies.

In 2011, EOR activities contributed a total production of 333,994 barrels of oil per day (bpd) or around 40 percent of the country’s total oil output. Through those activities, we can cut the natural decline rate from 12 percent to only 3 percent.