Pertamina looking for foreign partners

Indonesia’s state-owned energy firm wants to gain experience for further expansion.

Pertamina said the ideal form of partnership would be similar with that between Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil and British resource giant B, which helped Statoil gain knowledge and expertise in deepwater operation in a 20 year partnership.

Pertamina is seeking to forge this kind of relationshop for operating in the East Natuna block in the South China Sea, which contains the company’s largest gas reserves. It is also looking to gain knowledge of deepwater exploration from the Mahakam block in East Kalimantan.

The contract to operate Mahakam, currently held by France’s Total E&P Indonesie and Japan’s Inpex, will expire in 2017 and Pertamina is set to assume ownership rights.

Indonesia, however, is reluctant to give the company 100% ownership rights, which is supported by Pertamina, due to the high risk in operating deepwater oil and gas blocks.