Pertamina to drill 14 oil wells in C. Sulawesi

State owned oil and gas company Pertamina plans to conduct drilling activities on 14 new oil wells in the Banggai oil block in Central Sulawesi, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.

Haposan Napitupulu, the new venture manager at Pertamina?s upstream operation department, said in Makassar on Thursday that the drilling activities would be carried out within the Mantindok field with total cost of about US$4 million per well.

"Pertamina is optimistic that that the drilling in the new oil wells would be successful given the fact that the proven oil reserves found in the Banggai is the richest in Sulawesi," he was quoted as saying.

Haposan said that Pertamina, in cooperation with a number of foreign companies, had carried exploration activities. Five oil wells -- Tiaka, Minahaki, Mantindok, Senoro and Donggi ? which were drilled during the exploration contain potential oil reserves, he added.

According to him, at least five foreign companies has expressed their intention to cooperate in developing the Banggai oil block. "The investors include PNOC (the Philippines) Marathon and Elpeso (U.S.), Rentech (U.S.), Itochu and Mitsui (Japan," he added. (*)