Chevron to spend up to US$ 1 Billion in 2007

Leony Aurora, Bloomberg - 2007-01-18 12:14

Jakarta, January 17, 2007 (Bloomberg) - Chevron Corp., the second largest U.S. oil company, plans to spend as much as USS l billion on raising oil and gas in production Indonesia, said Suwito Anggoro, president of the company's unit in the Southeast Asian nation.

Most of the funds will be spent on a project to recover oil by injecting steam into the northern part of its Duri field in Sumatra island, Anggoro said in Jakarta.

The company will spend between $800 million and $1 billion, an increase on last year's spending of $750 million, in Indonesia, he said.

Chevron, which accounts for 45 percent of the country's production, is under pressure from the government to halt the steady decline of output at the aging fields in Sumatra.

Indonesia produced a near-record low of 857,038 barrels of oil a day in December, according to data from oil regulator BPMigas.

Chevron will pump an additional 6,000 barrels a day from the North Duri project next year.* Anggoro said on Oct. 6.

That will help to compensate for declining production from the existing 200,000barrel-a-day Duri field.

Chevron produces 440,000 barrels a day of crude and condensate, a light type of oil associated with gas, from its fields in Sumatra, Anggoro said on Oct. 6.

The company also supplies gas to the world's largest natural gas plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan.