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tate-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina launched massive expansion plans on Thursday, marked by the inauguration of eight upstream and downstream projects worth a total of US$15.8 billion.

The company, once an icon of the country’s graft-ridden institutions, also plans to spend more than $100 million on constructing an 80-story-high skyscraper as its new headquarters on Jl. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the projects would help Pertamina become a “world-class energy company” and “Asia’s energy champion” by 2025.

“These projects will serve as the backbone for national energy resilience and will be the main agent in encouraging the development of the economy,” said Yudhoyono.

The President was officiating the projects on board the Indonesian Navy’s (TNI AL) KRI Makassar 590 warship, which was off the coast of West Java.

Among Pertamina’s major projects include enhanced oil recovery development by three Pertamina subsidiaries — PT Pertamina EP, PT Pertamina Hulu Energy and PT Pertamina EP Cepu — that account for 95 percent of the $15.8 billion investment.

The project is expected to produce an additional 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil by 2025, according to Pertamina president director Karen Agustiawan.

“These projects are part of Pertamina’s measures to ensure that it stands equal to other global companies,” she said.

Although controlling 47 percent of the country’s oil and gas concessions, Pertamina only ranked third in terms of output.

According to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Pertamina’s oil and gas production reached 290,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day.

France-based Total E&P Indonesie has the largest output with 382,000 boe, followed by US-based Chevron with 335,000 boe.

The company, which is also tasked with a burdening subsidized fuel distribution, is also lagging behind its peers in the region — particularly Malaysia’s Petronas and Thailand’s PTT PCL — in terms of its performance.

Karen said that the planned projects were not only aimed at catching up with the regional peers but were also aimed at encouraging the growth of the national economy, as well as providing more job prospects.

“We have the ambition of carrying out business diversification so that Pertamina will become an integrated energy holding company by 2025,” she said.

Aside from the $15.8 billion projects, according to Karen, Pertamina would also plan to construct a solar-panel factory, a petrochemical business scheme with global partners, and Pertamina Corporate University.

During the inauguration ceremony, Yudhoyono also applauded Pertamina’s contribution, which is worth more than Rp 40 trillion ($4.1 billion) in tax annually.

“Pertamina has also increased capital expenditure from Rp 37 trillion in 2011 to Rp 52 trillion this year. This is good for creating jobs and new business opportunities,” Yudhoyono said.