Pertamina pulls out of Vietnam project

Pertamina pulls out of Vietnam project

JAKARTA: PT Pertamina has pulled out of its sole project in
Vietnam that it jointly set up with Vietnam's Petrovietnam and
Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd., an official from the state
oil and gas firm said on Wednesday.

"We stopped our project in Vietnam as it's no longer
economically viable," Pertamina's upstream director Harry Kustoro
said.

He said the joint venture company had failed to find oil in a
block off Vietnam's coast. The company had drilled two wells in
the oil block but they did not yield any results.

Kustoro said state-owned Pertamina had invested between US$5
million and $6 million in the joint venture company. Pertamina
had planned to invest around $20 million in the Vietnam joint
venture project.

Pertamina signed a contract with Petrovietnam and Petronas in
2002 to jointly explore and develop hydrocarbon resources in
Blocks 10 and 11.1 off Vietnam's coast.

Pertamina held a 30 percent stake in the joint venture
company, with Petrovietnam owning 40 percent and Petronas 30
percent. -- Dow Jones