TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The oil and gas director general of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry (ESDM) Djoko Siswanto deemed Pertamina to be not aggressive enough upon exploring new oil wells.
“Each time the government is offering a new work area to the public, Pertamina never took them,” said Djoko in a meeting with house of representatives yesterday. Djoko went as far to accuse Pertamina of preferring to invest overseas rather than domestically.
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“Such case is the one in Australia, it cost hundreds of billions of dollars but was closed down after just one year,” said Djoko. He referred to the participation rights acquirement at Australia’s Basker Manta Gummy (BMG) field in 2009.
He explained that the investment initially costs Rp568 billion; “We must push Pertamina to invest domestically. Don’t just prefer overseas exploration and investments in old oil fields,” he said.
CAESAR AKBAR
