PEP confirms to have postponed drilling plans

By Bernard Loebs

PT Pertamina EP (PEP), an upstream arm of state owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina (Persero), confirmed on Friday that it had postponed drilling plans for 14 wells.

?I can confirm that the exploration drilling program of 2013 has been postponed, not only (for wells) in Java region, but for 14 wells spread across all PEP assets,? PEP?s President Director Syamsu Alam said.

An industrial source told Petromindo on Thursday that according to the information he had collected, the budget for the drilling would be allocated by PEP to support political parties in their general election campaigns in 2014.

Syamsu however did not cite it as the reason of the postponement.

?We are making technical re-evaluation so that the investment funds that we shall spend will optimally used,? he said.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon