Investment in oil and gas sector reaches $8 billion

Realized investment in the country's oil and gas sector has reached about US$8 billion as of June this year, an increase of about 10 percent compared to the same period of last year, the regulatory body for oil and gas exploration and production BPMIGAS has said.

 

BPMIGAS chairman Kardaya Warnika said in Jakarta Monday that despite the increase, the government needed to lure more investors to invest in oil and gas exploration activities in order to halt the decline in the country's oil production during the last few years.

 

He said that he was upbeat the realized investment in the oil and gas sector would meet the government's target this year, given the increase in the investment commitment during the past several months.

 

At present, BPMIGAS is supervising 150 oil and gas blocks. Thirty of the blocks are in production stage  and the rest is still in exploration stage, he said.

 

Last year, the realized investment in the sector reached $9.7 billion. The government targeted to increase the realized investment in the sector to $12.96 billion this year and to $14.78 billion in 2008. (*)