Gus Dur calls for common oil strategy

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Sunday called for a common petroleum strategy among Southeast Asia's predominantly Muslim nations.

Abdurrahman, stressing he had fully recovered from the flu which had cast doubts over his Brunei visit, said a joint strategy among petroleum-rich countries Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia would go a long way in the costly area of exploiting resources and technology.

Maybe we could work out a common strategy globally and internally among the three Islamic countries of Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia," he told a news conference at Brunei's capital of Seri Begawan before returning home

after a one-day working visit.

The Indonesian President said he raised his suggestion for the joint petroleum initiative during talks with Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

The sultan's response was not immediately known.

Abdurrahman said Brunei Shell - a local joint venture with Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell - and the state-run Brunei Petroleum Unit as well as the national petroleum corporations of Malaysia and Indonesia, Petronas and Pertamina, could "get together and work something out" in terms of a joint strategy. (*)