Pertamina seeks to acquire new oil, gas block in Algeria

State-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina is seeking to acquire a new oil and gas block in Algeria as part of expansion of its upstream assets overseas to help achieve greater oil and gas production in the future.

?There?s opportunity to increase investment in one block in Algeria,? said Pertamina President Director Dwi Soetjipto at a business forum on Thursday as quoted by Bisnis Indonesia. He did not provide further details.

Pertamina currently owns and operates an oil and gas block in Algeria, called Block 405a, acquired from ConocoPhillips Algeria Ltd, a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips.

According to the company?s roadmap, Pertamina aims to achieve production level of 630,000 boepd by 2025. Acquiring upstream assets overseas forms part of the strategy to achieve the production target.

Meanwhile, Dwi said in a statement Thursday issued in connection with the company?s 58th anniversary said that Pertamina?s oil and gas production as of the end of October 2015 reached 584.32 mboepd, which is 11.3 percent higher compared to 524.94 mboepd in the corresponding period of last year.

Dwi said that the company managed to book a net profit of US$1.39 billion per end October despite the current drop in oil price, thanks among others to various efficiency measures. He did not provide comparative figure.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak