Pertamina ready to work with PetroChina

Indonesia's state oil company said on Tuesday it is ready to cooperate with China's leading oil firm PetroChina in upstream and downstream activities, a sign of growing energy cooperation between Beijing and Jakarta.

Pertamina's upstream director Iin Arifin Takhyan also told Reuters both companies hoped to sign a memorandum of understanding next month to formalise the cooperation.

"PetroChina has come recently and they said they wished to cooperate with Pertamina in upstream and downstream activities. Pertamina is ready to respond to that and we hope to sign a memorandum of understanding with them in March," Takhyan said.

The MoU would mark the entry of the second major Chinese energy company into the country after offshore oil giant China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced last month it had agreed to buy the Indonesian assets of

Spanish oil giant Repsol-YPF, its biggest international expansion to date.

Although Takhyan said the planned cooperation with PetroChina had no direct links with the CNOOC deal.

"This is nothing really to do with CNOOC buying Repsol. PetroChina will be able to join bidding to get exploration areas in Indonesia or they can cooperate with Pertamina in particular areas," he added. (*)