ExxonMobil's Cepu Block Project (Indonesia) Showing 30% CO2 Content - (0-5% Is Normal) - Reuters

[hatrack]

JAKARTA - Natural gas from Indonesia's Cepu block contains high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) that will increase production costs from the field, an Exxon Mobil Indonesia official said on Monday.

Exxon Mobil which jointly operates the US$2.6 billion Cepu development onshore East and Central Java with state oil firm Pertamina, has no time frame for producing gas from the field. But crude oil production from the block is expected to begin at the end of 2008 or early 2009.

"The CO2 in the Jambaran field in Cepu block is around 30 percent. I don't th
ink it is a problem, but the cost will be higher to produce the gas," Maman Budiman, senior vice-president at Exxon Mobil Indonesia, told Reuters by phone. "It will cost more to separate the C02 from the gas," he added.

An official at energy watchdog BPMIGAS said normal CO2 levels in natural gas are between 0 and 5 percent. "There is a technology to separate the CO2. BPMIGAS wants Exxon to continue with its plan to develop the gas from Cepu, because Indonesia needs it," the official, who declined to be identified, said.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43382/story.htm

[DS1]

1. and what do they do with it once separated?

blow it out a smokestack?

[kestrel91316]

5. They probably just absorb it with this sort of stuff:

....like we do in anesthesia machines......
http://www.udmercy.edu/crna/agm/07.htm

[eppur_se_muova]

7. That would be way, way too expensive. They probably just dump it. nt

[Nihil]

6. How long before ...

... some bright spark suggests "sequestering it" by pumping it back down
into the hole again?

:banghead:

[NNadir]

8. Well, actually. They dump it in the atmosphere with the rest of the dangerous fossil fuel waste.

Most people couldn't care less with what they do with it.

[phantom power]

2. Higher cost isn't a problem, you see.

I wonder what it takes to become a "problem."

[hatrack]

4. There would have to be "inflation" for there to be a problem, you see . . . .

And there's none of that silly old "inflation" around anymore - haven't you heard?

[Fridays Child]

3. Production costs will increase but, not to worry...

...the ExxonMobil CEO's compensation package is secure.

"'Exxon and Pertamina have to assess cost production and re-study whether the market can absorb the gas from the block as high prices,' Kurtubi said."