The Norwegian company Statoil is one of the world's largest sellers of crude oil and is represented in 34 countries. Mr. Tor Fjæran is heading the new office in Jakarta which will consist of around 25 employees when the company starts drilling in 2009.
Why did Statoil choose to invest in Indonesia?
Statoil evaluates Indonesia as an interesting country for exploration and exploitation of oil and gas. The country has relatively large un- or underexplored areas with a potential for making substantial discoveries. Most of these areas are offshore deepwater, areas where Statoil has long and comprehensive experience, especially from the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Our strengths technologically in areas such as exploration, reservoir management, offshore operations, sub sea, gas value chains and environmental/CO2 technology, should all be of relevance to the business opportunities available in Indonesia.
What are the engagements with Indonesia so far?
Statoil has presently a portfolio of engagements in Indonesia consisting of:
- A memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pertamina signed in September 2006
- A share of the Kuma exploration licence off Sulawesi together with ConocoPhillips, with a participating interest of 40%, awarded in January this year
- An operatorship with a participating interest of 51% for the Karama exploration licence awarded in April this year, where Statoil will work together with Pertamina as a partner
Statoil are working on two licences in Indonesia. Both are in relatively deep water, down to 2000 metres. This implies a demanding task which will require building on the technology developed in Norwegian waters since oil and gas production started in the early 1970's. Drilling will start according to plans in 2009.
How does Statoil regard the investment climate in Indonesia today and in the future?
The petroleum potential is fundamental for investors upstream and that is in place in Indonesia. The Memorandum of Understanding that Statoil signed with the Indonesian state oil company Pertamina in September 2006, forms a basis for potentially wide cooperation between the companies in Indonesia.
So far Statoil only has exploration investment positions in this country. The upstream investment climate meets our criteria. But, for our future business in the country it is important to learn about the investment climate in practice by being located here in Jakarta.
What are Statoil's future ambitions in Indonesia?
Statoil will focus on offshore exploration activities in Indonesia and also on opportunities arising within liquefied natural gas (LNG) - on the basis of the company's experience from the gas value chain.
What are Statoil's international ambitions for the future?
Statoil's backbone will for many years to come continue to be the oil and gas production from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). It will be important for the company to maintain the present production level from the NCS as long as possible into the future. The company's production growth, however, have to come from outside Norway.
The production is continuously growing internationally with Angola, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Venezuela and UK as the main producing areas at present. Statoil is constantly competing for new prospective acreage and oil & gas assets internationally, and has over the last years also built a strong portfolio in the US Gulf of Mexico and Canada.
Our Indonesian portfolio is so far only in the exploration phase, but we will work actively to grow also in this country.