Pertamina to sign seven new contracts

Pertamina to sign seven new contracts

JAKARTA (JP): The state oil company Pertamina will sign four
technical assistance contracts and three production-sharing deals
later this month for oil and gas exploration and production, a
company executive says.

"The technical assistance contracts will be awarded to
companies which will help manage and operate Pertamina's old oil
fields in South Sumatra and Irian Jaya with an enhanced recovery
method," Pertamina's director for exploration and production,
G.A.S. Nayoan, told The Jakarta Post and Kompas daily here
yesterday.

The three production-sharing contracts will be awarded to
companies for oil and gas exploration and production in North and
South Sumatra and South Sulawesi, Nayoan said during a break at
the one-day symposium on oil and gas research at the Pertamina's
headquarters here.

Yesterday's symposium featured various oil and gas studies
made by students and experts of the University of Indonesia (UI),
the Gajah Mada University of Yogyakarta, the Bandung Institute of
Technology (ITB) and Oil and Gas Research and Development
Institute (Lemigas).

He declined to reveal the name of the companies to be awarded
the contracts.

He said that Minister of Mines and Energy I.B. Sudjana has
approved two of the technical assistance contracts for operation
in South Sumatra and one production-sharing contract for
operation in South Sumatra, while the other contracts are still
undergoing final negotiations.

"We expect all the contracts will be signed after Christmas,"
he said. "Their signing will bring the number of contracts signed
by Pertamina this year to 11."

Pertamina last year signed a total 12 contracts for oil and
gas exploration and production, as compared to 10 signed in 1992,
22 in 1991 and 19 in 1990.

In July, Pertamina awarded three technical contracts to PT
Patrindo Persadamaju for developing Pertamina's former oil field
in the 197.54-square-kilometer Wasian-Mogori bloc in Irian Jaya,
to PT Binawahana Petrindo Merupa for the 245.94-square-kilometer
bloc in Meruap, Jambi, and to PT Babat-Kukui Energi for the 8.96-
square-kilometer bloc in Babat and Kukui in South Sumatra.
Pertamina also awarded one contract to PT Petrocorp Exploration
Indonesia Ltd, a subsidiary of a New Zealand oil corporation, to
explore for oil and gas in the 980-square-kilometer Karang Besar
bloc off the coast of East Kalimantan.

According to Nayoan, Pertamina early this year offered 21
areas to investors for technical assistance cooperation in oil
and gas exploration and production in South Sumatra, East
Kalimantan, North Sumatra and in West Java, in addition to seven
other areas for oil and gas exploration and production in
Salawati A, C, D, E, E. F and N onshore Irian Jaya under
production-sharing arrangements.

Nayoan said he expected that Pertamina will award 15 contracts
next year. "There have been four companies applying for oil and
gas exploration and production on Kei Besar and Kei Kecil islands
in Maluku and South Sumatra," he added.

Inauguration

Nayoan also said that President Soeharto is scheduled to
inaugurate Pertamina's first export-oriented oil refinery (Exor
I) of Balongan of Indramayu, West Java, which has a processing
capacity of 125,000 barrels of oil per day.

The inauguration, which will be held at a compound of the
geothermal power plant on Mount Salak, West Java, will also
include four of the state electricity company PT PLN's power
projects.

PLN's spokesman, David Tombeg, told The Jakarta Post yesterday
that the power projects to be inaugurated are a geothermal power
plant on Mount Salak with a capacity of 110 megawatts (MW),
another geothermal plant on Mount Darajat with a capacity of 55
MW, an open-cycle power generation plant at Tanjung Priok of
Jakarta with a capacity of 260 MW, a combined-cycle plant at
Tanjung Priok with a capacity of 800 MW, a gas-fueled power
station in Bali with a capacity of 84 MW, a diesel-fueled
generation plant in Lombok with a capacity of 15.2 MW and
electricity transmission facilities in Central and West Java.

A PLN expert, Imam Soesanto, told the Post that the Rp 197
billion Mount Salak geothermal plant has been financed with the
state budget, PLN's equity and a loan from Italy, while the Mount
Darajat plant, costing Rp 153 billion, has been financed with the
state budget and a loan of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The
Tanjung Priok coal-fired plant has been financed with loans from
the Union Bank of Switzerland, Kredittanftalt fur Wiederaufbau of
Germany, the Export Import Bank of Tokyo and the state
budget.(fhp)