The Newly Appointed Chairman Will Focus on Various Issues During His Tenure

The newly appointed chairman of Indonesia's special taskforce for the upstream sector will focus on various issues during his tenure, among them increasing oil and gas production and boosting reserves, he told Platts Monday. 

Rudi Rubiandini, whose appointment as chairman of SKKMigas was announced on Friday, said he will also look at pushing through the completion of certain oil projects, particularly the Banyu Urip oil discovery on the Cepu Block, as well as gas projects such as Inpex's Masela block, BP's Tangguh and Chevron's Indonesia Deepwater Development in the Makassar Straits. 

He will also carry out a restructuring of SKKMigas and strive to increase the capacity of the country's oil and gas industries, Rubiandini said, without providing further details. 

Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday announced that he had appointed Rubiandini to head SKKMigas, replacing energy minister Jero Wacik, who stepped down to avoid a conflict of interest. The president also appointed Susilo Siswoutomo as the new deputy energy and mines minister to replace Rubiandini. 

Yudhoyono also announced that the name of the taskforce had been changed to SKKMigas from SKMigas. 

SKMigas remains a temporary body, and a permanent agency will only be formed under a revised oil and gas law, which is due to be debated by parliament, Energy and Mines Ministry spokesman Susyanto said Thursday. 

Rubiandini was previously deputy operations chief of former upstream regulator BPMigas. Both Rubiandini and Siswoutomo will be sworn into their new positions on Tuesday. 

Indonesia's constitutional court, known as Mahakamah Konstitusi, dissolved BPMigas on November 13, ruling it contravened the part of the 1945 constitution on state control of natural resources, and that its legal powers and responsibilities were revoked. 

The court decided that BPMigas' roles and tasks would be taken over by the government or a state-owned company appointed by the government, until new regulations on the matter were issued. The government then set up SKKMigas, which is under the Energy and Mines Ministry, to take over BPMigas' roles. 

Rubiandini has previously expressed optimism that the government's target to produce 1 million b/d of crude in 2014 could be achieved, mainly from the Cepu block. 

Originally Yudhoyono had set a target to produce 1 million b/d in 2013. Instead, Indonesia now expects to produce 900,000 b/d of crude and condensate and 8.436 Bcf/d of gas in 2013. 

The 1 million b/d production figure is expected to continue until 2025. 

The Cepu block, which straddles the border between Central Java and East Java, is estimated to contain about 600 million barrels of oil and 1.7 Tcf of gas. Banyu Urip, the block's biggest oil discovery, is estimated to contain more than 250 million barrels of oil. ExxonMobil of the US and Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina each hold a 45% stake in the block, with the remaining 10% held by local governments. Peak production of 165,000 b/d in average is forecast to be achieved by 2014.