Facing Challenges During the Pandemic Era, Upstream Sub Holdings of Pertamina Moves to Achieve Operation Target

Jakarta, July 27, 2020 – PT Pertamina (Persero), through its upstream sector sub holdings, continues to strive to achieve their targets by continuing to drill and optimize the productions amid various challenges related to the COVID-19 Pandemic that took place since April 2020.

Based on data as of June 2020, Pertamina Group's total oil and natural gas production for both domestic and international assets reached 884.1 MBOEPD (thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day), with details of oil production of 414.4 KBOPD (thousand barrels of oil per days) and natural gas production of 2,721 MMSCFD (million cubic feet per day).

Two Pertamina upstream subsidiaries also recorded positive performance by achieving production targets according to the revised Work Plan and Budget of the Company (RKAP), namely PT Pertamina Hulu Mahakam (PHM) with production realization of 107% or 30,459 BOPD and PT Pertamina Hulu Sanga-Sanga (PHSSS) of 101% or 12.3 KBOPD. Meanwhile, three other subsidiaries, PT Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE), achieved production realization of 99.9% (82.2 KBOPD), PT Pertamina EP (PEP) of 99% (80.5 KBOPD), and PT Pertamina Internasional EP (PIEP) recorded 96% (99.4 KBOPD).

Vice President of Corporate Communication of Pertamina, Fajriyah Usman, revealed, following the revised RKAP, PHM and PHSS succeeded in exceeding operating targets after recording better baseline performance and added to production from well interventions.

For natural gas production, according to Fajriyah, a subsidiary that succeeded in exceeding the target was PHE, whose production realization reached 102% or 800.4 MMSCFD. This good achievement was supported by the ONWJ Block (Offshore North West Java) with production recorded above the target due to good baseline, reliability of facilities, and minimal production losses. On the other hand, PHE also continues to coordinate with consumers and SKK Migas to optimize gas absorption and distribution amidst the challenges of reducing demand. It is also a factor that drives increased gas absorption in the Jambi Merang Block and Tomori Block.

Other subsidiaries, namely PHI, PEP, and PIEP achieved production realization of 99% (745 MMSCFD), 94% (876 MMSCFD) and 91% (277 MMSCFD).

"Pertamina's upstream oil and gas subsidiary has made every effort to strengthen energy security by increasing production while strengthening oil and gas reserves. Going forward, efforts to maintain and increase production will continue to be strengthened, through well drilling, workover, well maintenance, as well as maintaining the reliability of production facilities to avoid an unplanned shutdown to achieve the 2020 production target," explained Fajriyah.

"Until the second quarter of 2020, even though we are in conditions that required optimization and cost efficiency, Pertamina managed to drill exploitation of 138 wells and workover work of 312 wells," she added. All activities in the upstream oil and gas sector have also been ensured to comply with strict COVID-19 protocol, including making various adjustments in the work system to protect workers.

In addition to the exploitation, Pertamina also continues to intensify exploration activities. The latest and most encouraging news came from PEP with the discovery of new oil and gas resources in the West Java Depression, precisely at the Akasia Prima-1 well (AKP-1). The AKP-1 well is targeted to prove the existence of hydrocarbons with potential pre-drilling resources (P50) of 75 MMBO (million barrels of oil) and 10.3 BCFG (billion cubic feet of gas). These findings complement PEP's previous success in finding 333.6 BCFG gas reserves from exploration at the Wolai-002 well in Central Sulawesi in the quarter 1-2020.

"Still in a series of exploration activities, as of June 2020, Pertamina has succeeded in conducting a 2D Regional Seismic Sea Survey in the largest open ocean in the Asia Pacific along 27,576 km or more than 91% of the target of 30,000 km. This effort is expected to find new oil and gas reserves that become giant discoveries for Indonesia, "he concluded.**