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Pertamina inaugurates locally made oil rig for Algerian oil exploration
State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina inaugurated a drilling rig built in Batam on Thursday for use in oil exploration projects in Algeria, to ease dependency on energy imports
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tate-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina inaugurateda drilling rig built in Batam on Thursday for use in oil exploration projectsin Algeria, to ease dependency on energy imports.
The rig, which was produced by PT Citra Tubindo Engineering (CTE), was designed in February and will be given to Pertamina's drilling subsidiary PT Pertamina Drilling Service Indonesia (PDSI) in October for use in the company's oil fields in Algeria.
Pertamina said that the US$26 million rig was 10 percent less expensive than the imported oil rigs that the firm used.
The firm's upstream operation director, Muhammad Husen, said that the Batam-made oil rig was the first step toward Indonesia's independence in using domestically made rigs.
'Indonesia has not been confident in producing its own oil rigs, but that needs to change. This rig proves that we can prosper with self-built equipment,' Husen told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The Algerian-bound rig is the company's third built by PT CTE, following two others built for Pertamina's operations in Cepu, East Java.
'The two rigs in Cepu manage to cut about 400 days from the required working days. We believe that CTE's third rig will produce the same positive results,' he added.
Meanwhile, PDSI chief director Faried Rudiono said that the subsidiary currently operated 42 oil rigs for oil exploration projects in the country, which is still far less than the company's target of operating 200 rigs by 2018.
Furthermore, CTE chief director Kris Wiluan explained that his company's oil rigs served as a solution toward the usual government spending for imported oil production equipment, which could reach up to $15 billion a year. (dyl/nfo)
