In its quarterly production report, the company said output from the field averaged about 89 terajoules per day during the March 2008 quarter.

The rupture of the Pertamina-operated pipeline was blamed on land subsidence caused by uncontrolled mud flow from the Banjar Panji-1 exploration well, in which Santos was a partner.

Mud flow from the well has already smothered nine villages, covering thousands of houses, factories, mosques and paddy fields, displacing 15,000 people and forcing dozens of businesses to close since it started in May 2006.

Soffian Hadi Djojopranoto, the deputy head of the government team managing the disaster, told AFP earlier this month that between 130,000-150,000 cubic metres of mud was still gushing from the ‘mud volcano' every day.

Residents near the area also have to contend with high levels of methane gas, though Djojopranoto said his agency was still in the process of determining whether the gas was from the mud volcano or produced from seweage pipes.

The well's operator, Lapindo Brantas, is owned by the family of Indonesia's Social Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, and has since been ordered by the Indonesian Government to pay 3.8 trillion rupiah ($US403 million) in compensation to the victims and to cover the damage.

The company has disputed findings that the disaster was caused by the drilling, and also whether it should foot the cost of managing the disaster.