Shaw wins EPC for Indonesian geothermal plant

Shaw wins EPC for Indonesian geothermal plant

24 March 2006 - The Shaw Group announced Wednesday that an Indonesian subsidiary of its Shaw Stone & Webster unit has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a new 60 MW geothermal power plant by PT Pertamina.

The plant, which will be located in Kamojang, Java, Indonesia, is the first Pertamina independent power project to sell electricity to Indonesia's national electric power utility, PLN. The work will be done in conjunction with PT Rekayasa, a construction company headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, and is scheduled to be completed in 2008.

J.M. Bernhard, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Shaw, said, "We are very pleased to have been selected by PT Pertamina to provide EPC work for this significant geothermal plant. Shaw Stone & Webster has previously executed several projects in Indonesia including the Suralaya coal-fired power plant, Darajat Stage II Geothermal Power Plant, North Duri Cogen Power Plant and others.

"Shaw is also working with Pertamina on other feasibility studies for geothermal projects in Indonesia, which has a geothermal resource potential of over 20,000 megawatts. This latest award further strengthens Shaw's position in the Pacific Rim and offers another opportunity for us to provide innovative and effective solutions to meet the world's energy needs."

Are we running out of oil ?

Q&A 10:2002 EXPLORER
Source AAPG Explorer

Simple Questions, Simple Answers

Editor's note: So you're at a dinner party or some other social function, and word gets out that you're part of the oil industry.

Of course, everyone wants to tell you what they think about the industry and your chosen career. You listen politely.

But then, the questions start coming -- and you, because of your position in the industry, are expected to know every answer to every question anyone has ever had about oil, the price of oil and why gas station employees don't automatically check your car's oil level anymore.

You confidently begin to answer, but, oh, oh -- repeating what your college professors told you doesn't help; you're being brilliant, of course, but the questioner's eyes begin to glaze over, and after you thoughtfully and logically drone on for five minutes or so they usually respond with, "Hey ... I thought ‘Spiderman' was a great movie. Didn't you?"

Maybe we can help.

Starting here, the EXPLORER each month will offer some brief, easy-to-understand information to help you handle the usual questions that we all get from the general public, which ordinarily isn't as brilliant as you are about such things.

And for some, the answers may help you, too.

Bonus points: Confine your answer to the "short answer" that's listed below, and people at most social functions will believe you're not only brilliant, but brilliantly witty.

So here we go: Controversial answers to some frequently asked questions about the petroleum industry.

Is the world about to run out of crude oil?

Short answer: No, but don't relax.

Divide known world reserves by current annual production.

Add room for consumption growth.

Create public panic.

We'll run out of oil in less than 30 years!

It may be time for explorationists to issue a statement of humility.

"Despite our vast expertise, we probably haven't discovered all of the oil in the world just yet."

That's the word from Joseph P. Riva, who wrote a report on the world's oil outlook for the U.S. Congress in 1995. He concluded that business-as-usual supply could continue through most of this century, given moderate consumption growth and political stability in the Middle East.

Riva has worked in the petroleum industry, the Smithsonian Institution and the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. He also served as a senior research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

A recognized expert on world oil and a longtime member of AAPG, he's authored more than 200 publications, including several books and the fossil fuels sections of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Riva's broad experience gives him a good perspective on the following question.

Are we close to the point where demand for oil will exceed the world's production capacity?

Short answer: Some pretty smart people think so.

Riva takes a moderately pessimistic view on this. He said a world production peak could occur within five to 10 years, especially if political events turn unfavorable.

"I think that the real danger now is a political one," he said. "The other danger is that if we push things to an extreme in exploration, when there is a drop-off in production there will be a pretty precipitous drop-off."

If that happens, market forces will dampen world oil demand, Riva noted. Declining supply would bring higher prices, which in turn would reduce consumption.

Most geologists don't appreciate the enormous power of the global marketplace or the elasticity of oil demand, he said. And most don't see the Big Picture shaping world production.

"Petroleum geologists are almost all optimistic. You have to be, because you drill so many dry holes," he observed.

"All of them think they can find oil in their particular basins. Few of them look at the whole world."

Grasberg dilihat dari angkasa.

Grasberg dilihat dari angkasa.
Hmm ... Gambar hires (1.1 MB), lowres (97K)
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-11/html/iss011e09620.html

ISS011-E-09620 (26 June 2005) --- Grasberg Mine, Indonesia is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 11 crewmember on the International Space Station. Located in the Sudirman Mountains of the Irian Jaya province of Indonesia, the Grasberg complex (also known as the Freeport Mine) is one of the largest gold and copper mining operations in the world. The Sudirman Mountains form the western portion of the Maoke Range that extend across Irian Jaya from west to the east-southeast. According to scientists, these ranges were formed by ongoing collision of the northward-moving Australian and westward-moving Pacific tectonic plates. Intrusion of hot magma into sedimentary rock layers during uplift of the mountains resulted in the formation of copper- and gold-bearing ore bodies. Rich copper ore bodies were discovered in the area in 1936, and the Grasberg gold-bearing ore bodies were discovered in 1988. This image illustrates the approximately 4 kilometers-wide open-pit portion of the mine complex; there are also extensive underground mine workings. Access roads for trucks hauling ore and waste rock are visible along the sides of the pit.

Geothermal: dari Warta Pertamina

Tulisan lama 2003 yg perlu diarsip !

sumber : Warta Pertamina

Di tahun 1974 Pemerintah melalui sebuah Keppres menitahkan Pertamina melakukan eksplorasi panasbumi di Jawa-Bali. Mulai tahun itu Pertamina aktif merintis pengembangan lapangan Kamojang (beroperasi 1983). Di tahun 1981 Pemerintah memberikan mandat pengusahaan panasbumi untuk seluruh wilayah Indonesia. Sekarang dengan 15 wilayah kerja existing dengan kapasitas terpasang 162 MW, Pertamina tidak lagi memegang monopoli itu. Itu terjadi sejak terbit Keppres No. 45 Tahun 1991, yang berarti terbuka persaingan di bisnis panasbumi. Tapi dengan potensi panasbumi sebesar 20 ribu MWe -- 40% potensi panasbumi dunia -- yang baru dimanfaatkan 4% saja, jelas ini sebuah peluang.

Secara teoritis, potensi dan cadangan panasbumi tidak akan pernah habis selama inti bumi masih panas dan air di bumi masih ada. Yang habis adalah lubang bor, baik karena rusak, tersumbat dan lain-lain, sehingga harus diperbaiki atau mungkin membor lubang baru yang lebih murah.

Dengan potensi yang sangat besar 20 ribu MWe (setara dengan 8 miliar BOE, barrel oil equipment) pengembangan bisnis panasbumi menjadi sebuah ladang subur. Selain dengan pemanfaatan indirect used untuk memperoleh energi listrik, juga bisa pemanfaatan secara direct used seperti penghangat di hotel-hotel. Permintaan energi listrik sendiri meningkat 12% setiap tahun.

Bahkan yang sudah dirasakan sendiri Pertamina adalah perolehan pendapatan dari bisnis panasbumi. Contoh kenaikan kontribusi pendapatan dari Rp 36,3 miliar di tahun 2003. Profit margin dari 52% pada 2000 menjadi 83% pada 2003.

KEBUTUHAN LISTRIK YANG TINGGI
Menurut perkiraan Departemen Energi Sumber Daya Mineral (ESDM) di masa datang laju permintaan listrik akan sangat tinggi. Lebih-lebih masih banyak jumlah desa yang belum mendapat aliran tenaga listrik. Saat itu kalangan swasta akan ikut serta dalam pembangunan ketenagalistrikan.

Memang sumber kebutuhan listrik bisa dipenuhi lewat Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Air (PLTA), Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Diesel (PLTD), Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Gas (PLTG), dan Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Uap (PLTU). Tetapi dengan kebutuhan yang terus meningkat tak pelak energi panasbumi dengan segala keunggulannya akan sangat dibutuhkan.

KELEBIHAN PANASBUMI
Nah, dari beberapa jenis energi alternatif, panasbumi memiliki beberapa kelebihan. Biaya operasi Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Panasbumi (PLTP) lebih rendah dibandingkan dengan biaya operasi pembangkit listrik yang lain. Secara ekonomis, rendahnya biaya operasi PLTP menjadi alasan pokok pengoperasian PLTP di berbagai negara, sehingga PLTP lebih diandalkan daripada pembangkit listrik yang lain (Encyclopedia Americana, 1996).

Juga dibandingkan dengan tenaga listrik yang energi primernya menggunakan batubara. Tapi murahnya biaya operasional PLTP hampir sama dengan biaya pengoperasian pembangkit tenaga listrik yang energi primernya menggunakan bahan hidroelektrik.

Walaupun untuk pengembangannya sendiri termasuk mahal (high capital investment). Hal ini antara lain karena harus membangun infrastruktur di lokasi sumber panasbumi itu berada, yang kebanyakan berlokasi di tempat terpencil. Panasbumi juga termasuk high risk & high tecknology.

Panasbumi ke depan akan menjadi pilihan, karena kelebihannya yang ramah lingkungan. Tak berlebihan kalau panasbumi dikatakan sebagai energi yang clean, renewable for the benefit of mankind and the environment (Anwari, 1997).

Walaupun begitu, dalam buku Business Profile Pertamina Geothermal Indonesia (Pertamina, 2003) disebutkan juga kelemahan jenis energi ini yang tidak bisa diekspor (unexportable resources).

Dengan kondisi ini, untuk energi primer yang dipakai untuk pembangkit listrik, panasbumi banyak diusulkan menjadi energi primer pengganti BBM. Selain memang panasbumi lebih murah, juga mengingat semakin menipisnya cadangan minyak bumi.

Penjualan energi listrik saat ini lebih banyak bertumpu pada PLN sebagai single buyer. Baru sejak 1983 PLN mulai memakai panasbumi, dengan mengembangkan PLTP yang pertama di Kamojang. Melengkapi PLTA, PLTD, PLTG, dan PLTU. Sejak saa itu sampai sekarang pemanfaatan panasbumi baru sekitar 4%.

Negeri kita masih tertinggal untuk urusan pemanfaatan panasbumi. Filipina adalah negeri tetangga kita yang sudah menggunakan panasbumi secara optimal. Sekitar 25% dari potensi panasbumi yang dimiliki negeri tersebut sudah dimanfaatkan.

Di luar Indonesia, saat ini paling tidak tercatat 20 negara yang ikut serta dalam eksplorasi panasbumi dan aktif mengembangan sumber daya tersebut. Secara berturut-turut sesuai dengan besarnya kapasitas terpasang adalah: AS, Filipina, Meksiko, Italia, Jepang, New Zealand, Iceland, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nikaragua, Kenya, Guatemala, Cina, Rusia, Turki, Portugal, Ethiopia, Guadelope, Thailand, dan Australia (Pertamina Geothermal Development Resources & utilization, Geothermal Hulu Pertamina, Juni 2003).

Secara persentase, suplai listrik dari panasbumi beberapa negara dibandingkan potensi panasbumi yang dimiliki, tercatat Iceland mencapai 45%, disusul Jibouti 30%, Filipina 25%, Kenya 21%, New Zealand 13%, Costa Rika 10%. Malah Tibet mencapai 90% (Majalah Pertambangan dan Energi, No. 1/Thn XIX/1994).

Kenapa negeri tetangga itu bisa begitu sukses, kita tidak bisa? “Karena Filipina tidak punya banyak minyak bumi, sehingga fokus ke panasbumi. Sedangkan kita masih tertumpu pada minyak dan gas bumi,” kata GM Geothermal Sukusen Soemarinda.

Benar apa yang dikatakan Sukusen. Dari buku Data dan Informasi Minyak dan Gas Bumi 2001 (Ditjen Migas, Departemen ESDM, 2001) terlihat seberapa besar pemakaian energi primer menurut jenisnya sampai tahun 2000. Minyak bumi tentu saja masih tertinggi (58,7%), menyusul gas bumi (25,6%). Berikutnya, batubara (10,4%), tenaga air (3,9%), dan terakhir panasbumi (1,4%).

KEBIJAKAN PEMERINTAH
Gambaran binis energi non minyak bumi -- termasuk panasbumi -- masih diibaratkan rimba perawan yang belum sepenuhnya dijamah. Masih banyak yang harus dibenahi dan disiapkan para pelaku bisnis gas, batubara, panasbumi, tenaga air, energi angin, biomassa, dan lain-lain. Termasuk dukungan Pemerintah.

Harga BBM yang disubsidi diakui semua pihak sebagai sekat penghalang berkembangnya energi non minyak bumi, yang kalah bersaing dari sisi harga. Tetapi ketika BBM dinyatakan tidak akan disubsidi lagi berdasarkan UU No. 25 Tahun 2000 tentang Program Pembangunan Nasional 2000 - 2004, bagaimanapun hal itu suatu kabar menggembirakan bagi pengembangan energi alternatif.

Sejak awal 1990-an, kebijakan Pemerintah di bidang pemanfaatan panasbumi mulai dikaitkan secara tegas dengan program konservasi energi di Indonesia. Dalam rangka menjamin kelestarian serta memanfaatkan sumber daya alam secara efisien. Pemanfaatan energi yang harus dilakukan efisien, rasional, dan bijaksana. Ini diatur Keppres No. 43 Tahun 1991 tentang Konservasi Energi.

Memang dalam Keppres No. 43/1991 sudah disebut-sebut energi non BBM, tetapi faktanya sampai sekarang orientasi pemakaian energi kita masih bertumpu pada BBM, karena BBM yang masih disubsidi masih termasuk energi paling murah.

Pemerintah mengeluarkan Keppres No. 45 Tahun 1991 yang memberikan peluang interaksi bisnis panasbumi sebagai sumber daya untuk energi listrik tidak hanya melibatkan Pertamina dan PLN, tetapi bisa juga BUMN lain, swasta, dan koperasi.

Bahkan ada Keppres No. 37 Tahun 1992 tentang Usaha Penyediaan Tenaga Listrik oleh Swasta (termasuk koperasi). Keppres ini dikeluarkan dalam rangka memenuhi kebutuhan tenaga listrik yang makin meningkat. Keterlibatan swasta dan koperasi itu dalam pembiayaan pembangunan, kepemilikan, dan pengoperasian pembangkit tenaga listrik, termasuk usaha transmisi dan usaha distribusinya.

Menurut Keppres itu, untuk usaha pembangkitan tenaga listrik oleh swasta diutamakan penggunaan sumber energi primer di luar minyak bumi. Walaupun begitu, apabila di lokasi proyek pembangkitan yang diusulkan tidak tersedia sumber energi primer non minyak bumi, pengusaha tidak mesti menggunakan energi primer di luar minyak bumi. Kekecualian itu termasuk apabila atas dasar keekonomian tidak mungkin digunakan sumber energi primer di luar minyak bumi.

Dukungan Pemerintah dari sisi regulasi memang tidak main-main untuk mengembangkan energi alternatif ini. Tak hanya sejumlah insentif yang langsung berkaitan dengan indsutri panasbumi telah diterbitkan oleh Pemerintah untuk mempercepat pengembangan energi ini. Juga bersama DPR, menerbitkan UU No. 22 Tahun 2003 tentang Panasbumi.

Tetapi mengembangkan energi panasbumi memerlukan dukungan lain, seperti pembangunan infrastruktur.

Soal infrastruktur ini, menurut GM Geothermal Pertamina Sukusen Soemarinda memerlukan keterlibatan Pemerintah, karena biayanya sangat mahal.

Bagaimanapun, pengusahaan sumber daya panasbumi memerlukan permodalan yang besar dengan risiko yang besar, teknologi tinggi, dan keahlian memadai. Lebih-lebih lagi, hasil produksinya hanya dapat dipergunakan untuk keperluan dalam negeri saja.

Walaupun panasbumi menawarkan peluang bisnis, tetapi pengembangan panasbumi memerlukan peran Pemerintah baik dari sisi regulasi, insentif, maupun restrukturisasi. (Tim WePe)

A Definition of Friendship

A Definition of Friendship

A Definition of Friendship
To think I could necessarily and sufficiently define a concept so profound as friendship would be my ultimate act of arrogance. What follows is therefore simply my personal observations and feelings on what the term 'friendship' means to me.
Email me

We each have a powerful natural inner drive to satisfy a ravenous natural hunger for intimacy of mind with other human beings. This greatly desired intimacy of mind is what we call friendship. But sadly, in this present austere world ruled by its divisive spirit of greed and competition, it is not possible to achieve this intimacy of mind to any worth-while depth with just anybody. The minds of potential friends must from the outset already possess a mutually sympathetic resonance - an inter-personal affinity.

A Natural Affinity

This affinity is strange. I can often sense it very strongly just by being in somebody's presence, even if no words are spoken. I have sensed this affinity with people with whom I did not even share a common spoken language. Mutual affinity is somehow conveyed by a person's atmosphere or aura. A pair of friends can just enjoy being together without having to say anything. This mutual affinity can even be picked up remotely. People have sensed a deep affinity with me just by browsing my web site from which we have then gone on to develop an intense friendship by email without ever meeting at all. However, a friendship never feels quite consummated without at least one face to face meeting.

What creates this affinity that provides the channel through which two people may become friends? Firstly they must each have the kind of personality that harmonises with the other. People of the same gender view the world in the same gender-specific way. I think therefore that same-gender friends need to have similar personalities - personalities with considerable overlap. Men and women, on the other hand, view the world in slightly different gender-specific ways that are mutually complementary. For male-female friendships, therefore, I think it is far better for the male and female to have complementary personalities.

Need For Shared Values

However, this natural affinity - also known as personal chemistry - is not all that is necessary for us to achieve the depth of mental intimacy required to truly assuage our hunger for friendship. We also need to share a greater part of our interests, pleasures and aspirations. But most importantly of all, we need to share the same core values.

Not all value-sets are conducive to friendship. The all-pervading spirit of competition and greed in current Western society reflects an underlying set of values that is not to my mind conducive to friendship. This value-set is powered by the lust for self-gain at the expense of others. It is the desire to take. It generates relationships in which one possesses the other in some way. One becomes a slave of self-imposed obligation trapped by the other's crushing emotional dependence upon them.

Friends give and receive in a way that enhances the ability of each to develop freely as he or she wishes. Friendship has no regard for wealth or status. There can be no hierarchy of friends. Friendship can exist only between two who regard each other as equal peers and who share a mutually agreed part of their experiences, knowledge, wisdom and pleasures.

Building Mutual Trust

Friendship is a partial sharing of minds. The extent of that sharing depends on the depth to which the friendship goes. Each of a pair of friends constructs a mental model of the other in his or her mind. This model has both intellectual and emotional elements. The process of building and maintaining this model requires an openness of communication in which each friend provides the other with a progressive revelation - an honest inner exposure - of him or herself.

Honest exposure of the inner self to another is not easy. Becoming friends from first meeting to bosom pals requires a progressive growth of mutual trust. But you shouldn't be naive. Don't expose your inner being too much too quickly. Like a rock climber, gradually reach out a little further, but only as far as you can afford to fall. At each successful stage, you each hammer in a piton. Then you each risk a further outreach towards the other from your respective points of established trust. Repeat this process until you eventually achieve total mutual trust.

If you fall into quicksand at any stage, grab your rope and haul yourself back to the previous piton (established level of trust). Take this as the appropriate depth for that particular friendship at that particular time. The depth, degree or level of intimacy in friendship is a continuous scale. You have to find the point on that scale that is right for each friendship.

Love Between Friends

Love is the driving force that creates and sustains friendship. The kind of love friends have for each other is the desire to know, serve and share. It is the antithesis of lust - the desire to acquire, possess and control. It is what makes one want to connect with another human consciousness - intellectually, emotionally and physically.

Unspoken doubts and suspicions are barriers that limit the possible depth to which a friendship can progress. Love empowers friends to say how they feel about each other without inhibition or fear of hurting each other's feelings. It thereby allows them to resolve their doubts and suspicions about each other, thus removing the barriers and opening the way to an ever deeper friendship.

Because friends love each other, one never attempts to force, coerce or control the other to change for the better. One friend only informs the other of the way he or she feels. Love will motivate the informed friend to change him or herself for the better. Because friends love each other, they will never use each other as a means to an end - as a human resource to be used and abused for self gain. A friend - as a precious sentient consciousness - is an end in him or herself. That end is the joy of sharing experiences and reciprocal love.

Means of Communicating

Friendship can exist only between two who share a mutually agreed part of their experiences, knowledge, wisdom and pleasures. In order to be able to do this they must communicate in a multiplicity of ways. The first and most intensive form of communication is by words - spoken or written language. This can be by letter/email, phone and face-to-face.

Written communication - especially email - is the most effective way for friends to learn about each other in a factual way. Its relative anonymity makes it much easier and less embarrassing to exchange deep intimate personal details as a firm foundation on which to build a friendship. Later, the telephone can add the extra emotional expressiveness that only subtle nuances of the voice are able to convey. Nevertheless, to my mind a friendship can never be truly consummated without meeting face-to-face.

Face-to-face presence not only facilitates a much more rapid exchange of words through speech, but also a very broad band channel for communicating emotionally. Eye contact is the most intimate form of emotional connection. The frequency and duration of eye contact with which a pair of friends feel comfortable depends on the depth of their friendship.

Touching enhances the emotional connection and relaxes any potential tension between friends. Various degrees of tactile intimacy become comfortable at various stages as their friendship deepens along the continuum of intimacy. The handshake signals the first stage of affinity. Next is probably the hug. Inter-gender friends may then perhaps progress to the male-female kiss of friendship. As their friendship deepens even further, their emotional communication may be further enhanced by a full kiss. Further on still, inter-gender friends may gain great pleasure from holding some of their conversations within the comfort of a relaxed cuddle.

The ultimate level of tactile communication is of course sex. This can be anything from light petting to full intercourse. Friends should only progress to a more advanced level of sexual intimacy when their intellectual and emotional intimacy has progressed at least to the point along the continuum of intimacy at which that particular kind of relating becomes appropriate and comfortable to both.

It is important to be aware, however, that the whole spectrum of tactile exchange is simply to enhance the intellectual and emotional connection facilitated by conversation and eye contact. So from the hand shake to the most intimate state of human coupling, good conversation and eye contact are key.

Summary

Friendship is a mutual intimacy of mind which we all naturally crave. Each of a pair of friends possesses within his or her mind a detailed mental model of the other.

Friendship is possible between equal peers with compatible personalities who share a natural affinity and the same core values, interests, pleasures and aspirations.

Friendship is created and sustained through an iterative cycle of building mutual trust through the love-motivated communication of progressively intimate personal thoughts and details.

The result is an ever-closer and deeper intellectual and emotional resonance between two intimate minds, which is the ultimate element of creation.

MarginalFields 11:2000 Explorer

MarginalFields 11:2000 Explorer

By KATHY SHIRLEY EXPLORER Correspondent

A Global View: 'No Perfect Laboratory' Rolling the Dice on Marginal Fields

"Independents have found they can work with many governments to affect changes that make smaller opportunities viable."

How much is enough? That's a question oil companies must ask themselves every time they make a discovery -- and there are no easy answers. Many factors are considered when firms determine if a discovery is commercial, and often fields just don't make the cut -- leaving countless millions of barrels of oil untapped all over the world. That's not a scenario governments around the globe relish, and increasingly marginal field legislation or incentives are cropping up to induce oil companies to give these international fields another look. "Marginal fields have nothing to do with their size -- there are 100 million-barrel marginal fields," said Jeff Aldrich, chief geologist with Forest Oil International in Houston. "It's all about economics." Aldrich presented a paper, "Are Marginal Fields Worth the Effort?: An Examination of Past Efforts in Incentives and a Look Forward to Future Potential" at last month's AAPG international conference in Bali. "Basically, companies examine if the cost of extraction is higher than the perceived returns under the current regime," he continued. "So if the economic burdens are lowered, some previously non-commercial fields are viable projects and additional production can be realized." Marginal field legislation and incentives cover a wide spectrum of styles and methods, including tax holidays, reinvestment incentives and sliding scale royalties. "There's no perfect laboratory out there," Aldrich said. "Every country has a different petroleum province and different needs, so no one solution works for every nation." However, marginal fields have become important issues for producing countries. Plummeting oil prices and investment in 1998 coupled with the natural production decline of oil fields hammered national budgets all over the world, prompting government officials to find new ways to get production on line. "Even today when oil prices have rebounded, there is still an exploration lag time before companies gear back up," he said, "so officials are examining if there are undeveloped fields that with higher prices and some incentives can be brought on-line to boost production quickly." It Costs How Much? There are only two things a country can do to increase production, he said: Improve the fiscal structure. Open previously unavailable acreage. "Increasingly there is a move to do both in various countries around the world," he said. "Countries have to be more creative and flexible if they want to increase interest in their petroleum industry and boost production." Too often, however, countries only see the lost revenue from potential incentives rather than focusing on the additional production that, without incentives, will never be realized. "When an oil company finds a marginal 30 million-barrel oil field that might produce $50-$60 million dollars of revenue, too often governments are unwilling to allow the $20 million in incentives that would make the field commercial," he said. "All they can see is they are losing $20 million. But the reality is that without the incentives they are going to get zero revenue from that field. "Countries have to broaden their perspective," he added. "Getting these fields on-line is the key, because it is normal for fields to actually grow as they are developed and ultimately realize more production than anybody initially thought possible." To date the number of countries offering incentives for marginal fields has been spotty. More efforts are focused on exploration incentives, he said. Unfortunately some incentive efforts for marginal fields fail as well. "Often countries require a certain amount of investment to get certain credits -- they try to dictate the terms too strongly and narrowly right at the very beginning, and few fields fit the terms," Aldrich said. "Also, some countries define marginal field legislation based not on economics but on some reservoir characteristic, such as deeper pool incentives. Again, not all marginal fields are going to qualify under these technical guidelines." Efforts at marginal field legislation typically aren't that attractive to major international oil companies, because they don't see much upside to marginal accumulations. Legislation focused on production incentives are more successful -- if the goal is to boost low rates of return regardless of size with a better fiscal regime than other fields then oil companies are more receptive, Aldrich said. Case Studies One example from Indonesia shows how a creative approach has resulted in higher production for the country. Maxus Energy formed a marginal fields team in conjunction with Pertamina, the state oil company, and, working through the existing production sharing contract, established a stepped program for marginal fields that has been extremely successful. "The first level of the program allowed exploration investment tax credit on fields that would normally not qualify," Aldrich said. Under this level, Maxus put five additional fields on-line, and in the first two years these fields produced 20 million barrels of oil. Maxus brought on three more fields, and additional production is now up to over 50 million barrels, Aldrich said -- "all this from fields that were discovered five to 20 years ago, and some of them were quite large." Among the best examples of successful marginal fields incentives is the Texas Railroad Commission's stripper well tax credits. "Currently over 60 percent of Texas' revenue comes from stripper wells, which at 10 barrels of oil or less a day are definitely marginal producers. The state has given tax credits and lowered the tax regime as well as reduced the royalty on stripper wells -- and those efforts have really paid off." Enter the Independents An important change in the international petroleum business over the past two decades has been the massive expansion of smaller independent oil companies looking for opportunities around the globe. This has particularly impacted the myriad of marginal fields all over the world. "Independents have found they can work with many governments to affect changes that make smaller opportunities viable," Aldrich said. "As a small independent you don't have a lot of leverage to change the tax code in Grimes County, Texas, or in Alberta, Canada. But, in countries like Bulgaria, Syria or Vietnam, where not many companies are actively operating, you can get the ear of the government. "Many governments aren't necessarily concerned with the size of the company, just their track record." Aldrich said independents' influence could be particularly felt in eastern European countries, for example, the Former Soviet Union and other nations that have had a fairly strong nationalized oil company or been dominated by one or two major companies. "Often when these countries initially open their doors to outside firms, they offer exploration opportunities as well as older fields and fields that have been marginal to the national company," Aldrich said. "The latter are real opportunities for independents to come in and bite off a field the size they can really chew on. "You can go into Romania, Albania or Bulgaria, to name a few, and find oil and gas fields that the state companies now need help with," he added. "They may be in the 20 million barrels of oil equivalent range, which can be very significant for smaller companies. "A good tax and fiscal regime make these opportunities profitable for independents." In addition to the eastern European countries and the Former Soviet Union, Aldrich said some other areas that are ripe with marginal field potential include: Latin American countries. Large onshore concessions in West African countries that have been dominated by just a handful of majors. Southeast Asia. China -- if companies can work with the government, he said. "You have to be careful when you examine these situations," he cautioned, "but if you do your homework there is a great deal of opportunities. Carefully crafted marginal field legislation can create a win-win situation where both the royalty or tax to the owner and the cash flow to the producer can both rise. "When properly used, marginal field legislation provides increased revenue and opportunities to both the owner and producer.

Gas Hydrates in the North Makassar Basin, Indonesia, by B.A. Jackson; #90035 (2004)

Gas Hydrates in the North Makassar Basin, Indonesia, by B.A. Jackson; #90035 (2004)

Salah satu future energy ternyata ada juga di Indonesia. Hydrates ini mungkin akan menjadi energi carbon masa depan. Namun karena masih carbon based barangkali akan menuai protes atau mengalami kendala dengan karbon emisi.

Tapi jangan sampai lupa lah ... bahwa Indonesia juga punya potensi sumber daya energi yg belum tergali.

Brapa jumlah cadanganya ?

Estimations of gas hydrate sourced methane depend on the areal extent, reservoir thickness and porosity, gas hydrate saturation and a hydrate gas yield volumetric factor that defines how gas hydrate converts to gas at standard pressure and temperature. A commonly used value for the hydrate gas yield volumetric factor is 164m³ of gas for every 1m³ of gas hydrate, assuming a 90% gas-filled hydrate lattice. A gas in place estimate was computed for the area encompassing ~8000 km² contiguous BSR within the West Sulawesi Fold Belt. An estimated 40% gas hydrate saturation was used for this study based on a compromise between the very low pore space saturations of around 5-6% in the Blake Ridge to the high saturation of 80% established for the Nankai Trough. Using a porosity of 36% and a gas hydrate saturation of 40% of pore space, a 10m thick reservoir resulted in an estimated gas in place of 1.89 trillion m³ (67 TCF) at standard pressure and temperature.

Lumayan kan ?