Pertamina: Indonesia to Save USD4 Billion/Year in Imports
Acting President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero) Nicke Widyawati
State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina (Persero) welcomed the Government’s decision through Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) that Pertamina will take over the Rokan Block – Indonesias most productive oil block, located in Riau province – from Chevron on contract expiry in August 2021.
“We would like to thank the President of the Republic of Indonesia, the Indonesian Government, and other stakeholders who have entrusted the management of the Rokan Block to Pertamina,” Acting President Director of PT Pertamina Nicke Widyawati said in a press release.
The statement is in response to the decision delivered by Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Archandra Tahar which was delivered at a press conference at Ministry of ESDM Office, Jakarta, Tuesday (31/7) yesterday, that after studying the proposal, the Government has decided to choose PT. Pertamina as the operator of the Rokan Block starting in 2021.
Under the proposal, Nicke said, it will increase Pertamina’s upstream production; thereby oil imports will be reduced.
“So, we can save foreign exchange reserves worth USD4 billion per year and reduce downstream production costs in the long run,” Nicke said.
According to Nicke, oil characteristics in Rokan Block are in accordance with national refinery configuration, in which oil will be processed at the domestic refineries in Balongan, Dumai, Plaju and Balikpapan.
In order to maintain production, Nicke continued, Pertamina proposed to utilize Enhance Oil Recovery (EOR) technology which has also been applied in Pertamina’s oil and gas fields in Rantau, Jirak, Tanjung – which are managed by Pertamina EP – including the application of steamflood which has also been carried out and succeeded in the Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE) Siak – the subsidiary of Pertamina – field.
In the meantime, Nicke also ensures that Pertamina will optimize the countrys resources and empower the people of Indonesia who have experience in managing oil and gas blocks.
For the record, the operatorship of Rokan Block has been managed by Chevron since 1971. The block production is quite promising, in which Rokan Block is capable of producing around 207,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in the first semester of 2018. (Public Relations of Pertamina/ES) (MUR/MMB/YM/Naster).
