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n a bid to realize its ambitious target of doubling production by 2015, state oil and gas company PT Pertamina will boost investments to Rp 37.1 trillion (US$4.08 billion) this year.

Pertamina spokesman Mochamad Harun said the investment allocated for this year would be about 86.5 percent from those spent in 2009.

With the bigger spending, Pertamina expected to crank up production capacity to 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD) in the next five years.

He said 76.4 percent of the planned investments, or Rp 28.4 trillion, would be channeled to the upstream sector while the remaining Rp 8.7 trillion would be allocated to downstream operations.

“To achieve the target, Pertamina will accelerate the production of oil, natural gas and geothermal sources. In the downstream sector, we will improve our refineries’ profitability,” he said in a press statement.

The company sets its 2011 oil and gas production target at 470,310 boepd, 6 percent higher than last year’s estimate of 443,500 boepd. Production of geothermal energy is also expected to increase to 16.5 million tons this year from 15.7 million tons in 2010.

“If we’re serious about achieving the target of producing 1 million BOEPD in 2015, we have to become more aggressive in ensuring the growth of our upstream operations,” Harun told The Jakarta Post via telephone.

He explained that investments in the upstream sector included the exploration of 76 wells and the drilling of 221 wells.

As for geothermal energy, Harun said Pertamina would develop the Hululain field in Bengkulu, the Sungai Penuh field in Jambi, the Lumut Balai field in South Sumatra, Ulubelu in Lampung, the Karaha and Kamojang fields in West Java, and the Lahendong V and VI and Kotamobagu fields in North Sulawesi.

In the downstream sector, the firm is committed to producing up to 247.3 million barrels of oil-based fuels this year, a 5 percent jump from the 235.5 million barrels produced in 2010.

The company plans to boost production of non-oil-based fuels by 7.6 percent to 23.9 million barrels from 22.2 million barrels last year.

“We also expect sales of non-subsidized fuels to grow faster this year. We plan to sell 1.56 million kiloliters of non-subsidized fuels this year, up from the estimated 1.23 million kiloliters last year,” Harun said in the statement.

He claimed that sales of the company’s lubricants would be expanded with a target of selling 546,00 kiloliters, an increase of 88,000 kiloliters from last year’s estimate of 458,000 kiloliters. For its aviation business, the company is seeking to increase sales of aviation fuel from 3.19 million kiloliters in 2010 to 3.3 million kiloliters this year.

“At the latest shareholder meeting we also decided to set the profit target at Rp 17.7 trillion, a 14.2 percent increase from the 2010 estimate of Rp 15.5 trillion,” he said.

Pertamina announced earlier that it would double its capital expenditure between 2010 and 2015 to Rp 262.3 trillion. Earlier reports said that between 2005 and 2009, the firm spent less than Rp 100 trillion on capital expenditure.