OREANDA-NEWS. Malaysia's state-owned oil firm Petronas has brought on line its Bukit Tua field in neighbouring Indonesia, a rare new crude stream for the country that is struggling to arrest its production decline.

Bukit Tua eventually aims for peak production of 20,000 b/d of crude and 50mn ft³/d (517mn m³/yr) of natural gas. It has started up at 3,700 b/d of crude and 2mn ft³/d of gas. Crude from the offshore venture will loaded on to tankers for export, with the gas to be delivered by pipeline to Gresik to supply the east Java market.

Bukit Tua is Petronas' largest upstream development in neighbouring Indonesia. Its infrastructure consists of the Rusa Nusantara floating, production storage and offloading vessel, a 110km pipeline and an onshore receiving terminal at Gresik. Petronas has an 80pc share of the Ketapang block that includes Bukit Tua, with Indonesian state-controlled gas utility PGN holding the remainder.

Indonesian crude production has fallen from a peak of 1.3mn b/d in the early 2000s to 790,000 b/d. Some of this decline will be arrested with the onshore Banyu Urip field in east Java hitting peak output of more than 200,000 b/d later this year. ExxonMobil and Indonesian state-owned oil firm Pertamina's Cepu block project, which contains Banyu Urip, is more than 96pc complete after years of missed targets. The 125,000 b/d increase in Banyu Urip production this year will offset Indonesian imports of low-sulphur crude as Pertamina could have access to an additional 1.7mn bl of sweet crude each month. It currently seeks around 5mn bl of sweet crude through tenders it issues each month.