Indian firms seek to invest in RI oil, gas sector

Three Indian companies have expressed interest to invest in Indonesia?s oil and gas sector, in partnership with state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina.

The Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said in a recent statement that India?s Petronet LNG Ltd, which specializes in LNG import and developing LNG terminals, wants to team up with Pertamina to develop LNG regasification and floating storage projects in Indonesia.

The statement said that India?s upstream company ONGC Videsh Ltd has also expressed interest to partner with Pertamina in the development of oil and gas blocks whose existing contracts are set to expire. The government has decided to transfer eight oil and gas blocks whose contracts are set to expire in 2017 and 2018 to Pertamina, which is allowed to seek partners.

Meanwhile, Indian Oil Corp, which operates the Panipat refinery in India, considered as one of the largest integrated petrochemical plants in the region, is interested to help Pertamina to develop the planned Bontang refinery project in East Kalimantan.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak