Page 5 - AsianOil Week 47

AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil

™

However, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Asso- highlighted inconsistencies with how SSGCL
ciation (APTMA) dismissed the utility’s argu- reported its sales revenues in the government
ment during an OGRA hearing on November petition.
23, with the industry body accusing SSGCL of The industry body argued that if the utili-
inflating its costs. ty’s finances needed to be shored up then the
The APTMA said the UFG adjustment government could slash wellhead gas prices,
should remain unchanged, as the SSGCL peti- which it claimed were among the highest in the
tion had combined UFG with imported LNG – a region. The APTMA said that based upon an oil
separate business segment that must be treated price of $40 per barrel, Pakistan’s wellhead gas
as a petroleum product rather than gas. price amounted to around $4.08 per mmBtu
The body also SSGCL’s complaints over ($112.85).
unpaid GDS was a problem it needed to resolve India, for example, cut prices for the major-
with the government, as GDS was not a fixed ity of the country’s conventional gas production
tax, rather than trying to pass the issue on to for the six months from October 1 to $1.79 per
the country’s gas consumers. The APTMA also mmBtu ($49.51 per 1,000 cubic metres).™

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Indonesia’s Kalimantan, Sulawesi

set to hit annual lifting targets

PERFORMANCE INDONESIA’S upstream watchdog has said targets set out in the central government’s 2021
crude oil and natural gas production from the budget.
country’s Kalimantan and Sulawesi regions is on “Hopefully the pandemic can be resolved and
track to meet its annual target. business returns to normal so that demand will
The head of SKK Migas’ local division, Sebas- return,” Julius said.
tian Julius, said this week that the region had SKK Migas said earlier this month that it
produced 82,711 barrels per day of oil in the first would push the country’s contractors to more
10 months of the year, 5% more than the target than double the number of oil wells drilled in
of 78,947 bpd. Natural gas lifting, meanwhile, 2021 from a projected 268 this year.
amounted to 1.7bn cubic feet (48.14mn cubic “We are co-ordinating with contractors to
metres) per day in the January-October period, push for 600 oil well drillings in 2021,” local
up 7% on the government’s target of 1.6 bcf newswire Antara quoted the watchdog’s plan-
(45.31 mcm) per day. ning deputy, Jaffee Suardin, as saying in a writ-
“For this year’s target, with existing data as ten November 11 statement. The agency wants
of October, we are optimistic that the Kaliman- drilling activity in the years that follow to climb
tan-Sulawesi target will be achieved,” local daily by 20-30% each year to reach 1,000-1,100 new
Tribun Kaltim quoted Julius as telling a press wells in 2030.
conference on November 23. SKK Migas has warned that with domestic oil
Julius added that the coronavirus (COVID- consumption projected to climb to 2.2mn bpd by
19) pandemic’s downward pressure on energy 2030 and to 3.9mn bpd by 2050, the country is
demand had affected production and that the on the verge of becoming dangerously depend-
outlook for next year remained uncertain. He ent on foreign suppliers. As such, the Jakarta
said it was impossible to make predictions for government has set a target of lifting national oil
2021, owing to the pandemic’s ongoing impact, production from slightly more than 700,000 bpd
but that the region would strive to meet the at present to 1mn bpd by 2030.™

Week 47 26•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P5