Pertamina sets Rp 37t for capital expenditure

State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina has allocated Rp 37.1 trillion for capital expenditure in 2011, up by 86.4 percent from the 2010 mark of Rp 19.9 trillion.

The spending was approved by the company?s shareholders on Thursday. Pertamina VP Communication Mochamad Harun said in a press release that 76.4 percent of the capital expenditure or Rp 28.4 trillion would be spent on upstream activities, with the rest for development of downstream sector.

?The meeting also set the company?s profit at Rp 17.7 trillion, up by 14.2 percent from last year?s profit of Rp 15.5 trillion. The 2011 planning was drafted through an aggressive in upstream and profitable in downstream strategy,? he said.

To meet the targets Pertamina will speed up transformation process by increasing oil, gas and geothermal reserves and production in upstream sector and enhance added value in processing as well as expanding top products in downstream sector.

"Our oil and gas production target has been set at 470,310 barrels oil equivalent per day (BOEPD) in 2011, up by 26,810 BOEPD from last year?s production of 443,500 BOEPD," he said.

Geothermal production is set at 800,000 tons higher from last year?s output to 16.5 million which equals 2,188 Gigawatt hour. To increase geothermal production Pertamina will develop Hululais, Sungaipenuh, Lumut Balai, Ulubelu, Karaha, Kamojang, Lahendong 5-6 and Kotamobagu fields, with total capacity of 1,092 megawatts.

Fuel production in 2011 has been set at 247.3 million barrels, up by 11.8 million barrels from last year?s mark of 235.5 million barrels, while non-fuel products are expected to increase to 23.9 million barrels, up by 1.7 million barrels from the previous year.

The volume of non-public service obligation products is also expected to hike by 330,000 kiloliters to 1.56 million kiloliters, compared to 1.32 million kiloliters in 2010.

Pertamina will expand its lubricant market to reach the sale target of 546,000 liters, up by 88,000 liters from 2010 mark.

For aviation business, aircraft fuel sale will be increased to 3.3 million kiloliters, from 3.19 million kiloliters in 2010.

The company set oil price at US$80 per barrel at an exchange rate of Rp 9,000 per dollar to calculate the 2011 targets. (bernard/giok)