Jakarta – PT Pertamina Hulu Indonesia (PHI) successfully exceeded the average production target of 47.8 thousand barrel per day (mbopd) for oil and 658.3 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) for gas set for the second quarter of 2021.

President Director of PHI-Regional Kalimantan Chalid Said Salim said that PHI continues to take strategic and operational steps through investment in exploration and development drilling, well maintenance, technological innovation and implementation, synergy among Pertamina subsidiaries, and cost-saving initiatives in all operational elements of the company.

“As the manager of ex-terminated work area, which had been in operation for more than 50 years, PHI continues to make various efforts to maximize the reserves and production of mature upstream oil and gas fields and to maintain its economic assets. We managed to reduce the natural production declining rate of oil and gas wells more than 50%. The number has currently reached below twenty percent,” said Chalid.

Excellent Performance in WK Mahakam

“The biggest contribution of upstream oil and gas production in PHI came from Mahakam work area (WK Mahakam), which is operated by one of PHI’s subsidiaries, namely PT Pertamina Hulu Mahakam (PHM). PHM succeeded to achieve production performance of 109.8% and 110.5% of the targeted production for oil and gas, respectively. By June 2021, the average production was 26.8 mbopd for oil and 554.4 mmscfd for gas,” added Chalid.

According to Chalid, since the management transfer in 1 January 2018 until 2020, PHM had successfully drilled 268 development wells to maintain production level, increase oil and gas reserves, and curb the natural production declining rate in WK Mahakam. In 2021, and the following year, it plans to drill 2 exploration wells and more than 150 development wells in WK Mahakam

“In addition to massive number of drilling, we also implement innovation in drilling operation in WK Mahakam, using rigless method, i.e. drilling using hydraulic workover unit (HWU) to reduce the use of rig. This is the first in Indonesia. Currently, HWU has been used to drill more than 5 delta wells in the work area (WK) and has been proven to save cost of drilling up to 37% compared to drilling using conventional rig,” said Chalid.

“At PHM, we have succeeded to implement several other innovations to maximize the increase in reserves and production through systematic, effective, and efficient seismic interpretation, low-pressure well management, and abandoned wells reactivation and optimization,” added Chalid.

Keep Investing

In terms of capital investment, Chalid explained that in 2020, PHI realized 719 million dollar in investment. In 2021, the planned capital investment of PHI is more than the previous year, in the amount of 869 million dollar or more than 14 trillion rupiah. “At Pertamina, we are committed to continue to invest in existing oil and gas assets development projects in order to keep producing energy needed by the nation and to provide value for all stakeholders, including the government and people of Indonesia.”

Not only did PHI exceed the production target, its safety performance is still the primary priority in its oil and gas operation and business. By June this year, PHI has recorded more than 28 million work hours without Lost Time Injury, with Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of 0.19 while the maximum allowed TRIR is 0.48.

”During the current pandemic, the Company’s ability to manage health and safety is one of the keys for its success in maintaining excellent performance. All members of management, as well as workers and partners in PHI-Regional Kalimantan always follow the health and safety protocol to ensure that oil and gas operation and production can be sustained and that everyone can go back to their family safely,” he concluded.

PHI is a subsidiary of PT Pertamina (Persero), under the management of Subholding Upstream that managed Regional Kalimantan. PHI is committed to overcome various business and operational challenges in this pandemic, to support Pertamina’s organizational transformation to achieve its aspiration as global energy company champion with market value of 100 billion dollar.