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ndonesia’s largest private oil and gas company PT Medco Energi Internasional announced that in the first semester of 2011, it booked US$19.9 million in net profits, jumping 64.7 percent year-on-year from $12.1 million.

The company contributed the sharp increase in profits to the surge in company’s oil and gas sales which contributed 61 percent to its total revenues during the period. Total sales rose significantly due to an increase in oil price which hit $113.2 per barrel in the first six months of this year, far higher than only $80.5 per barrel last year.

“We had also successfully ramped up our oil and gas production to 56,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day [boepd] from 55,500 in 2010,” the company says in a press statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Monday evening. The production increase had indeed caused financial burden in sales and other direct expenditures to soar, however Medco could still record an 18.6 percent rise in gross profits to $182.4 million from $153.8 million in 2010.

“The company’s operational burden, particularly to pay employees’ salaries, also jumped 17.2 percent due to inflation and the strengthening of rupiah. But, our operational profit still grew by 19.6 percent to $109.5 million from $91.6 million last year,” the statement reported.

The statement revealed that by the end of the first semester, Medco’s assets expanded 12.9 percent year-on-year to $2.3 billion from $2.1 billion. The company’s financial obligations also increased 14.2 percent to $1.5 billion this semester from $1.3 billion in the same period last year. Medco finance director Syamsurizal Munaf said that his company’s financial condition was very strong. With increased cash, the company believed that it could fulfill its “financial commitments” this year and in years to come.

“The presence of loans from Bank Rakyat Indonesia [BRI] and Bank Negara Indonesia [BNI] can be used anytime to pay off debts and fund investments,” he explained.

Last week, Medco announced that it had secured a five-year tenure credit facility of $150 million from BNI. Last month, the company acquired a five-year tenure standby loan of $140 million from BRI. The loan was also secured to pay off debts and for investment.

Medco was currently formulating strategies and plans to accelerate growth in the next five years, including ensuring that all main development projects could be completed on schedule, the company’s president director, Lukman Mahfoedz, reported.

“I believe by ensuring that all main projects are completed on schedule, we can improve our operational and financial capabilities in the future. We hope that we can always give competitive returns to our shareholders and other related stakeholders,” he explained. In July 15, Medco announced that it obtained total revenues of $50 million from the first phase of its bond offering. The bonds were offered with a 5-year tenure and an interest rate of 6.05 percent.

The company plans to issue $150 million in bonds within two years. It said earlier that 60 percent of the proceeds from the bond issuance would be used to pay debts, while the remaining 40 percent would be allocated for new investments.