Chile interests in exploring oil and gas in Indonesia

Chile has expressed its interest in exploring for oil and gas in Indonesia, especially in reviving old oil wells, President Abdurrahman Wahid told journalists aboard his flight from Santiago, Chile, to Ottawa, Canada.

"Chile is interested in exploring for oil in old wells that have been declared dead but in reality, the wells are expected to contain a significant amount of oil. Such old wells may contain hundreds of thousands barrels of oil, or maybe millions of barrels. There are around 30 percent of old wells that have been declared dead but still contain oil," Abdurrahman said.

President Abdurrahman also said that he had told Chilean President Lagos that Indonesia would build an oil refinery plant in Venezuela that could also supply fuels to Chile, if Chile wanted them.

"I told President Lagos about the possibility for Chile to use a refinery plant that we will build in Venezuela to supply fuels to Chile," Abdurrahman said.

During their meeting in Santiago, Abdurrahman also invited Lagos to attend G-15 developing countries summit to be held in Jakarta, May next year.

Abdurrahman said Lagos had agreed to come to Jakarta to attend the G-15 summit, and also to Brunei to attend the (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Abdurrahman is on his whirlwind overseas trip that covers also Venezuela, Argentina, Chile and Canada. (*)