Pertamina Internasional EP Eyes New Oil and Gas Blocks in Middle East

Oil refinery (intermediate)

JAKARTA - PT Pertamina Internasional EP (PIEP) is expanding by opening a Middle East branch office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero), Nicke Widyawati, believes that the branch office in Dubai can be PIEP's vehicle for expansion and create opportunities for adding new blocks in the Middle East.

"The potential for business development and opportunities for adding new blocks is still very large and wide open. We hope that the inauguration of this new branch office is not just an addition of physical facilities, but can also provide added value in terms of intangible benefits and tangible benefits," said Nicke, quoted on Thursday, July 4.

Nicke added that with the opening of this office, it is easy to get information related to international assets, and supports the optimization of operational costs for Jakarta - Dubai so that in the future Pertamina can be faster in capturing existing business opportunities and as an extension for Pertamina's business development, so that later other Subholdings must also be here.

"The opening of this office is not only to strengthen operational capabilities, but also to build the Pertamina group's business expansion, build Pertamina's supply chain, and also as a hub for human resource development through relevant technology, business intelligence and legal teams, supply chain management and stakeholder relations capabilities that have an understanding of business and regulatory laws in this country," said Nicke.

Meanwhile, the President Director of Pertamina Hulu Energi, as the Upstream Subholding, Chalid Said Salim expressed the same thing.

"PIEP's contribution to oil and gas production is around 20 percent to Subholding Upstream. With this branch office in Dubai, it will facilitate communication and coordination with partners. I hope that this step can simultaneously bring Subholding Upstream Subsidiaries to play a role abroad, considering the role of Regional International as an opportunity opener in the Middle East so that at the same time it will complement Pertamina's Subholding Upstream efforts to optimize the domestic sector," said Chalid.

The office located in Almas Tower will be PIEP's representative office which will encourage the spirit of going global to increase revenue and other added value.

Meanwhile, PIEP's President Director, Jaffee A Suardin, said that the initial discussion of the new investment in the oil and gas block had been carried out seriously together with the Iraqi upstream oil and gas authorities.

"We invited the Iraqi upstream oil and gas authorities, successively to Indonesia, to find out Pertamina's business overview directly. Exploration and communication with the Iraqi upstream oil and gas authorities have recently been positive. In addition, PIEP also invited the Iraqi upstream oil and gas authorities to join a number of Pertamina's management assets," he continued.

This office is the third PIEP representative office abroad. Previously, PIEP had PT Pertamina Algeria EP (PAEP) in Algeria, and PT Pertamina Malaysia EP (PMEP) in Kuala Lumpur which had previously operated.

In geographically, the opening of the Dubai office makes the time difference smaller so that it can be more massive to target opportunities in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and America.

As is known, in the Middle East Pertamina has operated in Iraq through ownership of 20 percent of the participating rights in the West Qurna 1 Block, and has contributed around 70 percent of the total production produced by PIEP. The oil block is located in southern Iraq, close to the city of Basra, 400 kilometers southeast of the capital Baghdad.

In its operations in West Qurna 1, Pertamina partners with Petrochina, ITOCHU, Basra Oil Company and Oil Exploration Company.