Press Release: Indonesian Petroleum Association names new president

June 28th 2004 -- During a special meeting of the Board of Directors, the Indonesian Petroleum Association has unanimously named Chris B. Newton as the new association president replacing Paul Warwick who has recently left Indonesia for a new assignment.

Mr. Newton is currently President and General Manager of Santos Asia Pacific based in Jakarta and has worked exclusively in the oil and gas industry, predominantly in upstream operations and business development.

Mr. Newton graduated from Collingwood College at the University of Durham, England in 1978 with an Honors Degree in Geology. He started his career as a wellsite geologist in the US, South-East Asia and Australia before joining Hartogen Energy in Sydney in 1980. After 10 years of worldwide experience in exploration and production, Mr. Newton joined Fletcher Challenge Energy in Jakarta as Chief Geologist and after 2 years with responsibility for geology and economics, Mr. Newton took a strategic planning role and was relocated to Auckland in 1993 as Business Development Manager for Australia and South-east Asia. In 1992 he graduated from Securities Institute of Australia with a Post Graduate Degree in Applied Finance and Investment and was transferred to Brunei as Commercial and Exploration Manager before being appointed as Managing Director. In 2002, Mr. Newton was relocated to Indonesia as President and General Manager of Santos Asia Pacific based in Jakarta.

The IPA also announced that it will hold a technical symposium "Deepwater and Frontier Exploration in Asia and Australasia" in Jakarta on December 7th and 8th 2004 and the organization of its 30th Annual Convention and Exhibition from August 30th 2005 to September 1st 2005 also in Jakarta. (end of release)

Ananda Idris
IPA Communication Committee Chairman