Government studying Pertamina's plan to buy Repsol-YPF assets
Monday, February 12 2001 - 04:15 AM WIB
The government was still studying state oil and gas company Pertamina's plan to buy the Indonesian assets of Spanish-Argentinean oil and gas firm Repsol-YPF, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.
Purnomo denied the report by local daily Bisnis Indonesia that the government had approved the plan.
"The government is still studying how Pertamina will finance the asset purchase. Pertamina is waiting for approval from its board of commissioners," Purnomo told Petromindo over the weekend.
The board of commissioners comprises several Cabinet ministers.
The board's secretary Roes Ariwijaya confirmed that the board is studying the possibility for Pertamina to raise offshore funds to finance the acquisition, citing the Pertamina Law No. 8/1971, which bars the state company to secure loans from overseas.
"Futhermore, the board of commissioners is still studying the technical and economic aspects of the acquisition plan," Roes told Petromindo over the phone.
Roes said Pertamina offered two alternatives for the purchase of Repsol-YPF's assets. The first alternative is to buy 9.80 percent shares in the South East Java production-sharing contract (PSC) and 12.45 percent shares in the North West Java PSC at the price of US$170 million.
The second alternative is to buy all Indonesian asset of the company at the price of $800 million.
Repsol-YPF has shares in seven PSCs in Indonesia, that is South East Sumatra (65 percent), North West Java (36.7 percent), West Madura (25 percent), Poleng (59 percent), Jambi Merang (25 percent), Blora (16.7 percent) , South Sokang (45 percent). (Godang)