Ophir Energy Commences Oil, Gas Production in Indonesia, Thailand

Ophir Energy Plc provided an update Tuesday on its Southeast Asian operations, with the firm commencing gas production at the Kerendan field in Indonesia, while output from Thailand's Bualuang oil fields resumed following a debottlenecking project.

Operator Ophir began commercial production at the Kerendan gas field in Bangkanai Production Sharing Contract (PSC), transporting 3 to 5 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d) of supplies to Indonesian state electricity distributor PLN as the latter commissions the power plant and transmission system. When commissioning is completed, gas sales will be maintained at a restricted volume of 5 MMscf/d at PLN's request to enable them to meet demand for power in immediate Buntok region.

Gas production from the Kerendan field will rise to 20 MMscf/d in accordance with the daily contract amount later this year when the full transmission line to Tanjung is expected to be completed. The total contracted volume for the first phase of production at Kerendan is 122 billion cubic feet (Bcf) and Ophir has rights to an additional uncontracted 2C contingent resource at Kerendan of 320 Bcf. Ophir holds a 70 percent interest in the Kerendan field, with the remaining 30 percent held by PT Saka Bangkanai Kalimantan.

Over in the Gulf of Thailand, production has restarted Sept. 2, after a 10 day shutdown, at the Bualuang oil field. This follows the completion of final tie-in work of a water debottlenecking project, which has increased the design capacity of the water handling and disposal system from 50,000 barrels of water per day (bwpd) to 75,000 bwpd.

Production is being ramped up as the new system is brought on-stream and tested. As of Sept. 11, the Bualuang field was producing at 9,700 barrels of oil per day (bopd) at a water disposal rate of 64,000 bwpd, an increase of 1,400 bopd compared to production in late August before commissioning of the new facilities.

"We are pleased to have successfully and safely completed commissioning and to have first commercial gas production at the Kerendan field. The field will now provide another source of cash flow for Ophir and is the first commercial production of hydrocarbons from Central Kalimantan. Furthermore, increasing water handling at Bualuang has added materially to the cash generation of the asset," Bill Higgs, chief operating officer, said in the press release.