Jakarta (Platts)--25Mar2011/709 am EDT/1109 GMT

Indonesia's crude output in February fell 7% year on year to 785,234 b/d, compared with 841,280 b/d a year ago, an official at the country's upstream regulator, BPMigas, said Friday.

"The lower production is caused by many unplanned shutdowns in our oil and gas areas," said the official who declined to be named.

Planned and unplanned shutdowns in February included Chevron Pacific Indonesia's project in Central Sumatra, BP's Tangguh project, ConocoPhillips' offshore operation and the joint Eni-BP project known as Vico Indonesia, said the official.

But February production edged up 0.5% compared with 781,544 b/d in January, he said.

The country pumped 120,908 b/d of condensate in February, down 3.6% from 125,100 b/d a year ago and down 3% from January output of 124,560 b/d.

Combined crude and condensate in February stood at 906,142 b/d, down 6.2% from 966,380 b/d a year ago but little changed from 906,104 b/d in January.

The country also produced 8.759 Bcf/d of gas in February, up 9.7% from 7.982 Bcf/d a year but down 0.12% from 8.77 Bcf/d in January, the official said.

Indonesia has seen its crude output fall over the years because of the natural decline at aging fields. It has set a target to produce 970,000 b/d of crude and condensate this year, but plans to revise this down to 945,000 b/d, Platts reported earlier this month citing energy and mines minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh.

The country failed to meet its 2010 crude and condensate production target of 965,000 b/d last year, pumping only 947,000 b/d.

--Anita Nugraha, newsdesk@platts.com

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