Indonesia, Egypt to cooperate in oil, gas exploration

Egyptian Oil Minister Sameh Fahmi said that Indonesia and Egypt agreed to work together in oil and gas explorations.

Minister Sameh Fahmi made the statement on the sidelines of the OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) meeting in Cairo on Saturday regarding his bilateral meeting with Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro in the Egyptian capital Friday night.

Minister Purnomo confirmed to ANTARA that the Egyptian government was very keen in oil, gas explorations with Indonesia as "we are considered widely experienced in this line of business", he said shortly after attending OPEC meeting in Cairo.

A similar statement was made by Pertamina's Upstream Industry Director Iin Arifin Takhyan, who said that the bilateral meeting between the two ministers will be followed up at a ministerial meeting of the two countries in Cairo in February 2002.

"The two ministers agreed to meet again in Cairo in February when Minister Purnomo visited Algeria to attend a conference of natural gas producing countries," Iin said.

Egypt is a non-OPEC country with current oil production reached 750,000 barrels per day.(*)