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