Indonesia’s Mahakam Gas Block May See Decline in Output Next Year

Indonesia’s Mahakam block, which accounts for 30 percent of country’s natural gas output, may see a 5.7% drop in output next year and about one third by 2017, reports news agency Bloomberg.

The block may pump 1.66 billion cubic feet of gas a day in 2014, down from 1.76 billion cubic feet a day this year, Arividya Noviyanto, a vice president at Total E&P Indonesia, said in an interview to Bloomberg.

Mahakam may export 166 cargoes of liquefied natural gas in 2014 via the Bontang plant this year, compared with 168 cargoes this year, Noviyanto said.

Total halted one project, which would have increased gas production at Mahakam, because of uncertainty about its ability to operate the field after its contract expires in 2017, says Bloomberg.

“It will become more and more difficult to justify investment pre-2017 for projects delivering production and revenues mostly post 2017,” Noviyanto was quoted by the news agency as saying. “According to our current investment plan, production could be in the range of 1 billion to 1.2 billion cubic feet by 2017.”

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