Six investors interested in RI oil, gas exploration projects

Six foreign oil and gas companies have expressed interest to invest in oil and gas exploration projects in this country, according to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

He was quoted by the Media Indonesia daily as saying on Wednesday that the investors expressed the interest during a recent oil and gas seminar in Bali.

The six foreign companies include Orient Petroleum (Pakistan), Anadarko, Murphy (U.S.), Woodside (Australia), Molgroup (Hungary), and Oranje Nasan (the Netherlands).

They're very interested with our programs, and in fact they're going to bring others friends to come here as well," Purnomo said.

Indonesia, the only OPEC member in the region, has been struggling to lure new investment in the oil and gas sector to boost production from the current 1.1 million barrel per day. The government has offered some incentives to attract investment.

Elsewhere, Purnomo was optimistic that the US$7.4 billion investment target in the oil and gas sector this year could be achieved especially with the upcoming signing of 27 new production sharing contracts.(*)