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JAKARTA (rambuenergy.com) – Despite low oil price environment, a number of oil and gas companies are still conducting survey and exploration activities, although the scale is not as active as before. Pertamina EP, an upstream unit of state energy company PT Pertamina, was among them. Pertamina EP revealed that the company has started carrying out a 2D seismic survey along 431 kilometers in South Sorong Regency and Bintuni Bay, in West Papua province, which is well known for BP Tangguh LNG project.
Public Relation Manager Pertamina EP Muhammad Baron said the survey was conducted in four districts, namely Kamundan, Wiriagar, Tomu and Aranday. The seismic survey is labeled 2D Kupalanda Seismic.
The 2D Kuplanda Seismic program kicked off in December 2015 and is scheduled to end in August 2016. The purpose of the seismic survey activity is discover new oil and gas reserves. The last seismic activities undertaken by Pertamina EP in Papua was in 1998.
The location of the survey is a low-land swamp area, divided into two parts — mountainnous tropical forest in the northern part and swamp area with sago forest in the southern part. The area is also passed by three large rivers, namely Kamundan, Wiriagar and Arandai rivers.
The survey involves more than 1,100 people and 70 percent of them area local Papuan people.
Baron said the survey area is quite difficult as there was no road access. The only access is through river using boat, while to reach mountainous area, the company uses helicopter to supply fuel and evacuate personnel in the event of emergency.
In 2016, Pertamina EP plans to conduct 5 seismic projects, namely 2D Kupalanda seismic, 2D Tanjung Area 1 seismic, 2D Bunyu Seismic, 3D Akasia Besar and 3D Seremban seismic.
“We want to highlight that in the middle of unstable upstram oil and gas industry, we are still committed to search for new reserves through aggressively conduct seismic survey. The target of the seismic survey is to conduct 2D seismic along 1,550 km and 1,556 square km for 3D seismic program,” said Baron. (*)
