Pertamina to spend US$2 billion to develop new gas fields

State owned oil and gas company Peramina will allocate at least US$2 billion in its budget to develop new gas fields in its gas concession areas in Sumatra, West Java and East Java, Investor Daily reported on Wednesay.

Pertamina's upstream director Kun Kornely said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the gas fields that would be developed by the company in these areas had potential gas deposits of at least 16 trillion cubic feet (TFC).

"The total gas reserves can reach 16 TFC. The proven reserves in Suban Barat in Central Sumatra has reached about 3 TFC," he said at a seminar.

He said that exploration of the new gas fields would cost Pertamina at least US$2 billion. "The amount of the money for the exploration project is quite big. That is why we will cooperate with reliable partners to develop the gas fields," he said.

Kun said that Pertamina planned to cooperate with ConocoPhillips to develop the Suban gas field which is expected to provide additional gas supply to the Duri-Dumai-Medan gas pipeline. "The negotiation is underway. We hope ConocoPhillips would agree to act as the operator of the new gas field," he said. (*)