Unocal to double Indonesian investment

Unocal Corp plans to double investment in Indonesia in the next five years to about US$300 million per annum on the back of successful exploration, a company official reported by Reuters as saying Tuesday.

"We have had very successful exploration over the last five years in Indonesia, largely in the deep waters offshore East Kalimantan, and now we have a series of projects -- almost one per year for the next five years -- that will bring on line lots of oil and gas," said Randy Howard, Unocal vice president for international energy operations Myanmar/Thailand/Vietnam.

Speaking on the sidelines of a gas conference in Singapore, Howard said by the end of the decade, Unocal could be producing 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas offshore East Kalimantan. The company's current gas output is 200 million cubic feel per day.

He said the additional gas could potentially supply half the needs of Indonesia's huge liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility at East Kalimantan, which is located on Borneo island.

Unocal currently supplies only small amounts of gas to Indonesia's Bontang LNG complex, which has eight LNG plants with a combined production capacity of 22.5 million tonnes a year.

Howard said Unocal had total investments in Asia of about $15 billion, mostly in Indonesia and Thailand.

He said around half the U.S. company's $1.2 billion annual capital expenditure programme was earmarked for Asia.

"The Far East contributes close to 40 percent of Unocal's total revenues and that will continue to grow. We've been here for a long time and it's part of our core business," he said.(*)