Pertamina to start oil exploration in Iraq

Pertamina to start oil exploration in Iraq

Associated Press, Jakarta

Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina oil company will restart an
oil and gas exploration project in Iraq interrupted earlier this
year by the U.S.-led attack on that nation, said a statement
received on Thursday.

"We are very pleased to finally begin exploration in Iraq and
to open an office in Baghdad," Pertamina's president Baihaki
Hakim said in the company statement.

Pertamina will invest around US$24 million in the first three
years in the Western Desert block, it said. It has an option to
extend its exploration activities by another two years with a
further $16 million.

A Pertamina spokesman said the company received clearance from
Iraq's Oil Ministry last week to restart the project in November.

"We have the green light," said Mochamad Harun. "A contract is
a contract and must be fulfilled."

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein last year awarded the
contract to Pertamina for the Western Desert Block 3, located 150
kilometers south of Baghdad, which is estimated to have three
billion barrels of crude oil.

The exploration and production contract was ratified by
Saddam's rubber-stamp parliament last October. The contract
stated that work was supposed to have started within six month by
April, but it was delayed because of the invasion and occupation
of Iraq.

When Saddam was toppled, Pertamina expressed concern that the
new U.S.-sponsored government would revoke the contract, after
having reportedly suspended contracts with Russia and China.