Malaysia, RI to step up oil and gas cooperation

Malaysia, RI to step up oil and gas cooperation

LANGKAWI, Malaysia (JP): Malaysia and Indonesia pledged on Tuesday to extend cooperation in oil and gas exploration and production following a historic agreement between the two neighboring oil producers earlier this month.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said after talks with visiting President Abdurrahman Wahid that the cooperation would include refining their crude oil.

"We agreed to continue with our cooperation in the field of oil and gas exploration and production and also in the refining of oil in our two countries," he told a joint media conference in the northern Malaysian island of Langkawi.

Malaysian state oil company Petronas and its Indonesian counterpart Pertamina earlier this month concluded their first deals on oil refining and gas sales.

Under one deal, Petronas will process 20,000 barrels per day of sour crude for Pertamina. Petronas will also buy natural gas for 20 years from Indonesia's West Natuna Sea area from Pertamina.

Also in the conference, Abdurrahman said Jakarta would repatriate in the near future more than 6,000 Indonesians who have entered Malaysia illegally to work.

Abdurrahman said that these illegal workers would be repatriated to their ports of embarkation in Indonesia.

"Before leaving for Langkawi, I was told by Minister of Home Affairs Surjadi Soedirdja that there has been an agreement (between Indonesia and Malaysia) to send these people back to Indonesia and both countries have agreed to shoulder the financial burden together," Abdurrahman said.

Abdurrahman's statement came as Mahathir admitted earlier that illegal Indonesian workers were high on the agenda of the one-day meeting.

Mahathir said Malaysia would eventually have to send the Indonesian illegal workers back to their country.

"We have jobs for them but so often they come here without any idea whether they can get employment here or not and obviously unemployed people will create problems because somebody will have to feed them, somebody will have to house them and that is a cost to us," Mahathir said.

"So do not come here and unemployed people who have came here illegally will have to be sent back to their country," he added.

Indonesian Minister of Manpower Al Hilal Hamdi, who was also present on Tuesday, later told reporters that there were some 6,084 Indonesian illegal workers who would soon be repatriated.

"Most of them are men and the rest are women and some 38 children and they will be sent back in phases," Al Hilal said.

When asked when the repatriation process would begin, Al Hilal said: "It will begin soon".

He added that these illegal workers were scattered in nine detention centers throughout Malaysia.

"For those who want to return to Dumai or Sumatra they will be covered by the Malaysian government while those who want to return to Java will be covered by both governments," Al Hilal said adding that Indonesian navy ships would likely be deployed during the process.

At the end of the talks between Mahathir and Abdurrahman, Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab and his Malaysian counterpart Syed Hamid Syed Albar released a joint statement calling on the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) to meet in Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian issue following the latest surge of violence in the territory. (byg)