Publications

Fifteen years of exploration activity from 2000 to 2015 in Indonesia were reviewed. These “where from” activities provide lessons, both in cases of success and failure, for us to plan on “where to” go for future exploration. Investment in petroleum exploration in Indonesia showed high performance during this period as can be seen by a significant increase of contract area licensing, including both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon contracts. The number of contracts increased from 110 areas in 2003 to 312 areas in 2015. However, this has been followed by a decline since 2012 due to global lower oil price. Indonesia was the leader in the number of 2D and 3D seismic surveys in Southeast Asia during the period. In addition, 974 exploration wells were drilled from 2002 to 2015. There was a total of 676 New Field Wildcats (NFW), with 310 wells discovering hydrocarbons, resulting in NFW technical success ratio of 46 %. New technical resources in place from 2000 to 2015 discoveries was 18,500 MMBOE. Significant discoveries during 2000-2015 in Western Indonesia can be grouped into these play concepts: (1) Paleogene deeper/syn-rift sections of Sumatra, West Java, West Natuna Basins, (2) pre-Cenozoic fractured basement of South Sumatra, West Java, East Java Basins, (3) Oligo-Miocene carbonate build ups of East Java and Upper Kutai Basins, (4) Mio-Pliocene deep-water turbidites of North Makassar and Tarakan Basins, and (5) Mio-Pliocene growth-faults of delta progradation of Tarakan Basin. Significant discoveries during 2000-2015 in Eastern Indonesia can be grouped into these play concepts: (6) Australian Jurassic passive margin sediments, and (7) carbonates-reefal build up or fractured carbonates (Miocene and Jurassic). During 2002-2015, there were 388 dry wells, located in various places and play concepts, including: exploration immature areas of Western Indonesia (forearc basins of Sumatra and Java, intra-cratonic basins of Sundaland, Bogor Trough), West Sulawesi offshore, Mesozoic and Paleozoic Australian province, and Neogene Pacific province. These “failure” cases have provided lessons for better future exploration.