Pertamina aims to become country?s second largest producer

State oil and gas company Pertamina plans to reshape its upstream operations to anticipate the passage of the oil and gas bill by forming alliances with foreign partners and aggressively participating in domestic and overseas oil and gas projects, Gatot K. Wiroyudo, senior vice president of Pertamina's upstream operations was quoted by Dow Jones as saying Tuesday.

"Currently, Pertamina produces 180,000 barrel of oil equivalent," Gatot said on the sidelines of the three-day Sixth annual Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur.

"We will acquire reserves not necessarily domestic and also through cooperation with foreign firms," he added.

Gatot reiterated that Pertamina aims to become Indonesia's second largest oil producer within five years, which he said would require Pertamina raising its production capacity by 40 percent within that time frame.

Currently Pertamina is eyeing the oil and gas blocks owned by Argentinean firm YPF-Maxus, which produces 120,000 barrel of oil per day.

Pertamina is also in talks with ExxonMobil to acquire between 10 to 50 percent stake in Cepu oilfield in East Java, which is expected to produce 100,000 bpd of oil in 2004.

PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, a joint venture between America energy giants Chevron and Texaco is the country's largest oil producer with a total production capacity of about 700,000 bpd.

During a conference panel discussion Tuesday, Gatot said Pertamina is looking for ways to develop projects in cooperation with Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, and Indian Oil Corp.

"We will seek bilateral and multilateral cooperation in this sector," he said.

He said Pertamina would consider oil and gas exploration and production projects in North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Gatot said the blueprint for the restructured oil and gas industry also allows for participation of the provincial governments and won't require any adjustment in production sharing contracts. (*)