**By APD Writer Maverick **
** JAKARTA, Nov. 8 (APD) ** — Senior officials of China’s state-run oil and and gas firm of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Indonesian counterpart Pertamina signed here on Wednesday a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) document aimed at expanding mutually beneficial cooperation between the two state energy firms.
The signing of the document to initiate further cooperation between the two energy firms was conducted by President of CNPC International Ltd. Lyu Gongxun and Pertamina Senior Vice President Upstream Business Development Denie S. Tampubolon in Pertamina headquarters here.
In his remarks to address the MoU signing Lyu said that the cooperation with Pertamina is highly expected to mutually grow business of both firms up to international level, not only in respective nations.
“Starting from today, we are going to take more energy to further our cooperation with Pertamina, to make it highly successful not only in Indonesia but also in international level as well,” Lyu said.
The MoU signed by the two senior officials obliges CNPC International and Pertamina to identify and determine the specific potential projects that represent their mutual and balanced interests.
Teams from the two parties would study further over the projects, and if they were feasible the two parties would carry out the projects after signing the Joint Study Agreement document.
In his reciprocal remarks, Denie Tampubolon expected that CNPC International and Pertamina can immediately implement the points mandated in the MoU documents, growing strong together with the cooperation.
“We look forward for further implementation of the MoU to become real and materialized as new business opportunities,” Denie said.
Denie added that Pertamina pins high hope upon the upcoming partnership with CNPC.
He said that Pertamina already established excellent cooperation with CNPC subsidiary PetroChina, which has been operating in Indonesia in the last 15 years.
Besides cooperation in domestic level, Pertamina and PetroChina also had profound joint international alliance experiences in the joint operation of West Qurna-1 oilfield in Iraq along with other foreign investors.
“We know CNPC is an international-scaled oil and gas firm, owned by the state, just like us. It would make us very comfortable to cooperate with CNPC. We can learn many things from the cooperation, including the cost efficiency,” Denie said.
As of this year, PetroChina is involved in nine working areas in Indonesia, employs around 1,000 Indonesian workers in its operation sites.
PetroChina is the main operator of Jabung oil bloc in Indonesia’s Jambi province. It teamed up with Pertamina under Joint Operating Body (JOB) scheme to operate Salawati and Tuban blocs.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)