Pertamina to Submit Iran Oilfield Development Proposal

A delegation of executives from Indonesia's state-owned oil and natural gas company Pertamina is scheduled to meet with representatives of the National Iranian Oil Company in Tehran on Saturday to submit a proposal on the development of the onshore Abteymour and Mansouri oilfields.

Pertamina signed a nondisclosure agreement last August with NIOC to conduct studies on the oilfields and the meeting will reportedly be a presentation of the master development plan for the oilfields, IRNA reported Friday.

"Pertamina will present its technical and financial development plan for Abteymour and Mansouri fields before its submission deadline at the end of February in order to get ahead of its competitors, namely Russia's Gazprom and Lukoil as well as the international Pergas Consortium," Pertamina's director for upstream sector, Syamsu Alam, was quoted by IRNA as saying.

According to Alam, Iran is one of Pertamina's priorities, and that is why the company is serious about investing in Iran's upstream oil and gas industry. 

The official also noted that he was not sure how long it would take for the NIOC to make a decision after the proposal was submitted. 

Mansouri Oilfield is located 60 kilometers off the Persian Gulf in Khuzestan Province. It holds an estimated 3.3 billion barrels of oil in place. Iran currently draws around 60,000 barrels per day from the field, but plans to draw 100,000 bpd initially and 150,000 barrels in the long run.

Abteymour oilfield, which is close to Mansouri, is estimated to hold 15 billion barrels of crude. Output now stands at around 60,000 bpd, but NIOC hopes to produce 110,000 bpd from the field.

Indonesia has been eying Iran's oil projects since international sanctions against Tehran were lifted in January.

Active Role 

"Indonesia is willing to play an active role in Iran’s upstream oil and gas development projects, known as exploration and production (E&P)," Zulkifli Hasan, speaker of Indonesia’s People’s Consultative Assembly said in a meeting with Amirhossein Zamaninia, deputy oil minister for international and commercial affairs, in Tehran in December.

According to the NIOC chief executive, Ali Kardor, should Tehran and Pertamina reach a final agreement on Abteymour and Mansouri, the deal would mark the first cooperation deal between the state-run oil companies of the two countries. 

Collaboration with Pertamina is aimed  at transferring knowhow to tap into Iran's massive hydrocarbon reserves.

Iran is pushing for new deals with multinationals to raise crude production despite a global oversupply and persistently low prices. It is now pumping close to 4 million barrels a day, a level last seen before the tightening of sanctions in 2011.

--- LPG Exports 

Pertamina received the first shipment of LPG from NIOC last September. The 44,000-ton cargo of LPG was shipped from Iran’s Asalouyeh energy zone in mid-September.

Underscoring Iran’s readiness to provide Pertamina with crude oil, Zamaninia noted, “More cargo of liquefied petroleum gas will be exported to Indonesia in the near future.”

According to the company’s senior vice president for integrated supply chain, Daniel Purba, Pertamina needs LPG from Iran to meet high demand for the commodity. The two sides signed an agreement in August that covers LPG sales for 2016 and 2017.