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tate-owned oil and gas company Pertamina and its Papua New Guinea (PNG) counterpart, National Petroleum Company Papua New Guinea (NPCP), agreed on Tuesday to explore business cooperations in the oil and gas sector.

In the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in Jakarta, the two companies agreed to conduct studies as well as to look for business partnerships.

Pertamina president director Karen Agustiawan said the company intended to offer its research centers as well as seismic interpretation abilities. While NPCP chairman Frank Kramer said his company wanted to form a long-term relationship with the Indonesian government through Pertamina.

'€œWe think there'€™s a lot of relevance beaconing, with [Pertamina'€™s] more than 50 years in LNG,'€ he said.

Kramer said that NPCP might also help Pertamina develop Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) sources in geologically challenged areas.

NPCP would be open to sharing seismic data with Pertamina in the future when the opportunity arises, added Kramer.

NPCP is currently constructing a US$ 20 billion LNG project with Exxonmobil, according to Kramer. '€œAs of right now, it is 85-90 percent complete. But there will be a third train, a fourth train, and a fifth train,'€ Kramer said.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'€™neill expects his country'€™s GDP to double by 2015 due to development of LNG, where 2011 figures show PNG GDP at $12.93 billion.  (asw)