Pertamina primes its drillbit

Jakarta (IOGNews) - Indonesian state-run player Pertamina is moving to boost its output by drilling 30 exploration wells this year, up from just six sunk last year, a company official said today.

Pertamina's upstream director, Sukusen Soemarinda, said the company wants to increase its crude output to 118,000 barrels per day this year from its own operations, compared with 107,000 bpd last year.

He added that so far this year it had pumped about 32,000 bpd of oil with its partners, which is about the same as 2006.

"We will spend around 10 trillion rupiah (.1 billion) on upstream activities in 2007, including about 0 million for exploration," Soemarinda told Reuters.

He said Pertamina spent 8 trillion rupiah for upstream activities in 2006.

Soemarinda said Pertamina will drill exploration wells in North Sumatra, South Sumatra and Java.

"We hope we can find more oil in Sumatra and Java," he said.

Indonesia's crude oil production fell 0.58% to 857,000 bpd in December from 862,000 bpd in November due to ageing fields, an official at oil watchdog BPMigas said.

The country's condensate output fell to 120,900 bpd in December from 124,200 bpd in November