Pertamina's Investment Next Year is Untouched by the Oil Price

KATADATA - Pertamina’s investment for next year is not affected by the plunging global oil price. When other oil and gas firms are decreasing their activities and stopping their investments, Pertamina increases its investments in the upstream sector because Pertamina wants to grow even more in the midst of this plunging oil price condition, and so, the investments must increase. The increase of investments in the upstream sector will occur for all the projects in Indonesia as well as other overseas projects.

Syamsu Alam, Pertamina’s director for upstream oil and gas sector, said that Pertamina has already prepared US$ 3.8 billion to invest on the upstream oil and gas sector, which is larger than this year. US$ 2.6 billion will be used for the domestic purposes, such as for Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE), Pertamina’s subsidiary, that manages Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) Block as well as West Madura Offshore (WMO). Besides PHE, the funding will also go for other subsidiary of Pertamina, which is Pertamina EP.

The remaining US$ 1.2 billion will be allocated for the management of Pertamina’s oil and gas blocks abroad. Right now, Pertamina is focusing its strength and attention to manage the oil field in Aljazair, and Pertamina has already been approved to develop the 405a block in Aljazair, which will contribute to the total production by 23,000 barrels per day. (Read more: Pertamina to expand its Business in Aljazair)

Next year, Pertamina will drill 34 exploration wells, which consists of four overseas wells and 30 domestic wells. Other than that, the firm will also drill 149 development wells, where 112 of them are within the country, and 37 of them are abroad. The oil production is targeted to be at 326,000 barrels per day (bpd) and gas production is targeted at 1,926 million cubic feet per day (mmscfd). Pertamina intends to keep its increasing production trend that has started since 2012.