Jakarta, March 2 (Antara) - Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina is expected to expand business in aircraft fuel sale to Saudi Arabia and cooperate with Saudi firm Aramco in the development of oil refinery plants in Indonesia.
The expectation for Petamina to make investment in Saudi Arabia was expressed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) on Wednesday, amidst the ongoing visit of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in Indonesia from March 1 to 9, 2017.
Witnessed by King Salman and Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) Indonesia and Saudi Arabia signed 11 agreements in the form of memorandums of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday, among others on development funding and civil aviation.
Director General of Oil and Gas of the ESDM Ministry, IGN Wiratmaja hoped that Pertamina would invest in Saudi Arabia, among others on aircraft fuel sale in that country.
"We will continue to encourage cooperation. It should not happen that only Saudi Arabia makes investment in Indonesia, but Indonesia, in this case Pertamina, should also expand aircraft fuel sale to Saudi Arabia," Wiratmaja said in a discussion at the Oil and Gas Building in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Pertamina and Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) have agreed to cooperate in a refinery plant development through a Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP) program in Cilacap, Central Java, with a total investment of US$6 billion.
"The President has lauded the signing of the agreement on the RDMP program between Pertamina and Aramco," Foreign Affairs Minister Retno LP Marsudi told the press at the Bogor Presidential Palace on Wednesday. Total investment in the project reached US$6 billion.
The project could lead to the establishment of a joint venture and the basic engineering design cooperation.
Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and entourage began the state visit to Indonesia from March 1 to 3 and will have a vacation in the tourist resort island of Bali from March 4 to 9.
This is a historical occasion as Indonesia could discuss cooperation with the Saudi king who visited Indonesia for the first time in 47 years after King Faisal bin Abdulaziz al-Saudi visited Indonesia in 1970.
Therefore, Wiratmaja hoped that there would be an increase in the energy cooperation particularly in the current visit of King Salman in Indonesia.
The government encouraged Pertamina to invest in the sale of avtur (aircraft fuel) to Saudi Arabia, and if possible it should acquire oil fields in that country. The Indonesian oil company is expected to repeat its success in the establishment of cooperation such as it did with Iran, notably the development of the Iranian Ab-Tymour and Mansouri oil and gas fields which are respectively believed to have oil reserves of 1.5 billion barrels each.
"We encourage Pertamina to also acquire oil fields in Saudi Arabia, just like what it did recently in Iran. For its intensive approach, Pertamina was given the chance to operatee the two oil and gas fields," noted Wiratmaja.
The ESDM ministry also hoped that Saudi businesses would develop investment in the energy field in Indonesia not only in the downstream sector but also in the upstream one.
After all, Armaco has previously agreed to cooperate with Pertamina in the development of an oil refinery plant through the RDMP in Cilacap, Central Java, which is expected to be finished one year earlier than the initial schedule in 2021.
According to Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, the Saudi and Indonesian leaders have projects to offer. Indonesia among others offered the development of refinery plants in Dumai, Balongan and Bontang.
"This includes construction of steam-generated power plant (PLTU) in Jambi, infrastructure that include roads, water resources, drinking water, sanitation, and housing," she said.
Regarding the Bontang refinery plant project, Pertamina has mentioned that Saudi oil company Aramco is one of the 95 companies taking part in an expose held to offer the Bontang Grass Root Refinery (GRR) project.
Pertamina organized the Bontang GRR project expose on Tuesday (Feb 28) to seek a partner in operating the refinery project which is located in East Kalimantan.
According to Pertamina processing and petrochemical megaproject director Rachmad Hardadi, all are given a chance to take part in the expose of the Bontang GRR project, including those which already have a cooperation scheme in other projects in the country, such as in the Cilacap project with the Saudi Aramco.
Hardadi also expressed hope that the current visit of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud would produce a number of agreements with regard to the Cilacap RDMP.
"The spirit of the visit is very strong. So, the best thing will be raised. Of course, we hope that the support from Saudi Arabia with regard to the Cilacap RDMP would be very good," he remarked.
Director General Wiratmaja said Indonesia needs to increase the spirit of investment in the country. The national energy sector still lacks attractiveness compared with that in neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.
Hence, Indonesia needs to increase its investment attractiveness amid the global competition in a bid to make it attractive to investors.
"We have already attracted investment in the downstream refinery project. So, we open a wide chance in the upstream sector. We have to make it more attractive because in the global competition we are still behind Vietnam and other neighboring countries," asserted Wiratmaja.***3***(A014/H-YH)(T.A014/A/BESSR/A/Yosep) 02-03-2017 22:32:1 |
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