Pertamina to boost net crude production by threefold in five years

State oil and gas company Pertamina had planned to boost its net crude production by nearly threefold through a series of investment, acquisition, take over and farm-in in the next five years, a Pertamina senior official said on Wednesday.

"We are envisioning additional crude production of 138,000 barrels per day (BPD) in 2006," Pertamina?s upstream director, Arifin Takhyan, told Petromindo.com in an exclusive interview.

The plan could be materialized partly due to Pertamina's planned acquisition of Spanish-Argentinean oil and gas firm Repsol-YPF Indonesian which could boost crude production by some 55,500 BPD, Arifin said.

He further said Pertamina would get a boost of 50,000 BPD from its participation in ExxonMobil's oilfield in Cepu, East Java, which is currently being negotiated between the firm and ExxonMobil.

In the negotiations, Pertamina insisted to get 50 percent stake in the project while ExxonMobil was willing to release only 20 percent to Pertamina.

The Cepu project, expected to become on stream in 2003 with production capacity of 100,000 BPD, will require an estimated US$92 million on Pertamina part, according to Arifin.

Meanwhile, Pertamina has also planned to acquire 20 percent interest in Exspan Sumatra?s producing block in South Sumatra. Exspan Sumatra is a subsidiary of local oil and gas firm Medco Energi Internasional Tbk.

" The farm-in is estimated to cost Pertamina $ 32 million and give it additional crude production of 14,000 BPD," Arifin said.

Pertamina will also take over Coastal Plain Pekanbaru (CPP) oilfield, currently operated by Caltex Pacific Indonesia, in August of next year, when the CPP contract expires. The government had extended the contract for one year.

"Pertamina's net production from that field is estimated at 13,000 BPD with an investment of $ 115 million," Arifin said.

Pertamina would also get another 6,000 BPD from its 10-percent participation in West Seno oil field in Makassar Strait, Indonesia's first deep sea oilfield which is operated by US oil and gas firm Unocal Corp.

Arifin estimates Pertamina's investment share the Makassar project at $ 78 million. The project is expected to commence production at 60,000 BPD in 2004.

Pertamina currently produces 48,000 BPD of crude. (godang)