Pertamina unleashed

Back outside Opec again, Indonesia's oil and gas giant will spend heavily

When the upstream subsidiary of Indonesia's Pertamina group took control of French independent Maurel et Prom in early February, it marked the latest stage in the state-owned company's aggressive expansion of its overseas and domestic upstream activities. The acquisition of the 186-year-old, Euronext Paris-listed oil and gas firm gives Pertamina operations in Africa, notably Gabon, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, as well as Myanmar and other parts of Asia, Canada and Italy. With oil and gas reserves of around 205m barrels of oil equivalent, the purchase of Maurel et Prom means that "Pertamina can be more optimistic about developing its upstream business faster," enthuses upstream director Syamsu