The oil and gas lifting (ready for sales) in Indonesia had underperformed during the first semester as the novel coronavirus pandemic ravaged demands.
The oil lifting in the first six months settled at 713,300 barrels per day (bpd) while gas lifting stood at 5,605 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) during the period, the Oil and Gas Upstream Regulator, SKK Migas, said on Friday.
The amount of the oil lifting was equal to 94.5 percent of the target as stipulated in the national development budget, and that of the gas lifting reached 84 percent of the target, Head of SKK Migas Dwi Soetjipto expounded.
Soetjipto said that the oil and gas industry has been weathering an extraordinary pressure this year as oil and gas prices steeply drop in the international market.
"This is the steepest downturn in prices during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is then followed by pressures on consumption and demands, which create many obstacles for us to boost maximally work performance," he said.
The new protocols to cushion the virus transmission have hampered upstream activities as they slowed transports of materials and inspections of work performance, besides lowering productivity amid restricted movements of work forces, said Soetjipto.
For the reason, the SKK Migas has drifted down the country's oil and gas lifting target this year to 725,000 bpd and 5,727 mmcfd respectively.
Consequently, the expectation of gross revenues from the oil and gas sector this year was slashed by almost half to 19 billion U.S. dollars from the initial projection of 32 billion dollars, according to Soetjipto.
Indonesia's oil output has been dwindling since recent years due to aging wells and weak fresh investment for exploration, making the country a net-oil importing nation, according to the SKK Migas.
Editor:Cherie
