JAKARTA - Chairman of Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business (SKK Migas) at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Amien Sunaryadi said he had rejected a proposal by US major oil & gas ExxonMobil to raise oil production at the the Banyu Urip field within Cepu Block in East Java.
ExxonMobil, which jointly operates the block with state-owned energy firm PT Pertamina on a 45 percent stake, had proposed increasing output to 200,000 barrel oil per day (bopd). The start up of the Banyu Urip central processing facility in December 2015 enabled an increase in output from some 40,000 bopd in 2014 to 130,000 bopd and in May, output reached 185,000 bopd, exceeding the peak production of some 165,000 bopd originally envisioned in the development plan. (*)