Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina is exploring upstream projects in Russia after being offered cooperation from Russian oil company Rosneft.
"During talks on cooperation for the development of a refinery in Tuban (East Java) Rosneft offered integrated partnership for investment in the upstream sector in Russia. Its weakness in the upstream sector has indeed made Indonesia invest abroad," Pertamina's President Director Dwi Soetjipto said after meeting with state-owned enterprise minister Rini Soemarno at the latter's office here Wednesday.
The offer was responded to seriously by Pertamina as it indeed has to strive to realize Indonesian energy resilience especially in oil. Pertamina which was established in 1957 has already sent a team to Russia.
The team had been assigned to study data connected with the project, Dwi Soetjipto said.
The data would be used to consider the location to be explored, Pertamina's Deputy President Director for Communication Wianda Pusponegoro said.
"That needs around two weeks. After that a decision will be made on where the blocks will be built," she said.
Pertamina is projecting around 20,000 barrels of oil a day from Russia.
The amount will add to the national production which is only around 800,000 barrels to meet around 1.6 million barrels a day.
During the process Pertamina will also decide whether it would become a direct operator in Russia or not.
"If it becomes an operator we will do it based on a production sharing system. We will cooperate with Russia because it is one of the world's biggest oil producers," she said.
Rosneft is one of the companies that will be involved in the development of a refinery in Tuban. Foreign investors who win in the tender will be made known in the next two weeks. (WDY)
