T

he Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said the recent visit of its delegation to Algeria bore fruit, as one of the world's biggest petroleum producers welcomed deeper cooperation, particularly in the oil business.

The ministry's oil and gas director general, Edy Hermantoro, led a delegation to Algeria earlier this week as the government looked for oil supply for the country's oil refineries from the North African nation.

'This aims to reach long term supply to support Indonesia's energy security programs,' Edy said in a written statement.

With 1.5 million barrels of oil produced every day, Algeria positions itself as one of the most significant producers in the world.

Algeria's state-owned Sonatrach announced last month it had discovered a new oil field with estimated reserves of 1.3 billion barrels in the northern central part of the country.

Ministry spokesperson, Saleh Abdurrahman, said Sonatrach welcomed Indonesian state-owned oil and gas giant PT Pertamina's plan for cooperation.

Pertamina and privately run PT Medco Energi Internasional were part of the delegation that met the Algerian officials. Attending the bilateral meeting from Algeria's side, according to Saleh, were Sonatrach, Algeria's National Agency for the Valorization of Hydrocarbon Resources (ALNAF) and Sonatrach's subsidiary Naftal.

'Sonatrach still needs one more meeting with Pertamina to finalize its cooperation,' Saleh said on Friday. 'Sonatrach is expecting knowledge sharing and hopes the Indonesian government will employ Algerian technicians in off-shore fields in Indonesia.'

Pertamina's spokesperson Ali Mudzakir could not be reached for comment on Friday.

The government planned to establish three oil refineries, financed by funds in a public private partnership (PPP) or by the state budget, Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Susilo Siswoutomo said earlier.

Pertamina's talks with Kuwait Petroleum and Saudi Aramco to build refineries stalled as the two demanded incentives deemed too high, including a 15 percent increase in crude oil prices supplied to the refineries over the benchmark price provided by Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) ' a measure of fuel oil pricing ' and a waive of import duty on oil supplied.

Pertamina currently has six refineries nationwide with a combined production capacity of between 600,000 to 700,000 barrels per day of refined fuel.

Separately, Medco president director Lukman Mahfoedz said his company was assessing the possibility of doing business in Algeria.

Medco, the shares of which are traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) under the code MEDC, already has a number of participating interests in several oil blocks in Yemen, Libya and Oman.