TEPI wants ?certainty? after 2017
Friday, January 18 2013 - 04:16 AM WIB
Total E&P Indonesie (TEPI) wants to continue investment in Indonesia, but is demanding for ?certainty? after 2017 when its current contract over the operatorship of the gas-rich Mahakam Block expires.
The ompany's President Director and General Manager Elisabeth Proust said that the company is currently finalizing talks with the authorities on the post 2017 period.
This statement apparently shows that TEPI wants to maintain a role in the Mahakam Block when its current contract expires in 2017, a position that will certainly move against the wish of state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina, which wants to take over the block.
Proust said that she was concerned with the lingering political debate, describing TEPI as a foreign entity. She stressed that TEPI is not a foreign company because a majority 3,700 of the company?s workforce are Indonesians.
?I?m sad to hear the word ?foreign?. The team at TEPI is Indonesians. The values of Total (TEPI) are in line with the spirit of Indonesia,? she said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the South Mahakam field within the Mahakam Block in East Kalimantan on Thursday.
Proust added that TEPI is the largest oil and gas investor in Indonesia, which last year spent Rp 25 trillion worth of investment, and contributed Rp 67 trillion to the state coffer. To date, she said, her company has paid up a total of Rp 830 trillion to the state coffer.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the SKK Migas, Rudi Rubiandini said in his speech that the presence of Total EP Indonesie has provided benefits for the development of the country.
?Our relationship with Total perhaps will not end in 2017,? he said, suggesting that there has to be collaboration among multinational, state-owned and provincial-owned companies in managing the Mahakam Block after 2017.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak