Pertamina allocates up to Rp 10 trillion for acquisitions
Thursday, December 23 2010 - 02:15 AM WIB
?The budget for allocation is still being discussed, but we estimate this will be between Rp 5 trillion to 10 trillion,? said Dwi Martono, president director of PT Pertamina Hulu Energi, Pertamina?s business unit that manages oil and gas fields acquired from other companies.
He refused to state the number of oil and gas blocks Pertamina expects to acquire next year, but the company hopes acquisition activities in 2011 will increase oil production by 9,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
?Acquisition activities this year contributed around 6,000 bpd to our oil production. As for this year, we hope additional oil production of 9,000 bpd will come from acquisitions
Pertamina estimates its total oil production, both from the company?s existing fields and newly acquired fields, to reach 192,000 bpd this year. Dwi said the company expected total production to increase to 208,000 bpd in 2011.
Dwi said Pertamina would not acquire gas fields next year as gas production at its existing fields was still high. Pertamina estimates its gas production to reach 1,450 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) this year. ?We expect our gas production to increase to 1,500 MMSCFD next year,? Dwi said.
Pertamina is upbeat about boosting its oil and gas production from the current level of approximately 420,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD) to 1 million BOEPD in 2015. On Monday, the company?s president commissioner Sugiharto said the company must double its investment to reach the high production target. He said the company expected to spend Rp 262.3 trillion in capital expenditure from 2010 to 2014. Pertamina?s capital expenditure from 2005 to 2009 was less than Rp 100 trillion.
Pertamina allocates most of this investment to upstream activities. Pertamina?s president director Karen Agustiawan has repeatedly said that the acquisition of new assets was a must for the company to meet the target. She said the company was currently evaluating 30 oil and gas blocks for potential acquisition in the future.
Domestically, Pertamina has 22 upstream assets and is eyeing seven more oil and gas blocks. The national oil company has repeatedly called on the government to immediately transfer the rights of 24 oil and gas blocks, whose contracts will expire soon, to the company.
Pertamina currently operates eight oil and gas blocks overseas, including two blocks each in Libya and Vietnam and one block each in Australia, Iraq, Qatar and Sudan. The company is also reviewing the potential of acquiring 10 more overseas assets.
As of 2010, Pertamina?s total assets were worth Rp 316.7 trillion, up from Rp 315.9 trillion in 2009. This year, the company estimates to book a net income of Rp 16.3 trillion, up from Rp 15.8 trillion in 2009. (*)